Don't Forget to Remember
by BelieveInYou
Summary: It's mostly about Brucas. Brooke is a new girl in town. She soon meets Peyton, who will be her best friend, and Lucas, who could be more than just a friend to her. on hiatus now
1. Night of my life

**Night of my life**

Brooke Davis is a new girl in town. She's a cute girl with long dark brown hair and beautiful hazel eyes. She used to live in L.A. with her mom but she moved to Tree Hill to live with her dad. She is a cheerleader and she wants to cheer Ravens.

After another win, Ravens had a party in some big house. Some guys had invited the new girl too.

"Why you always have to trace me? Why are you even talking to me?" Peyton asked Lucas when she tried to go up to the stairs.

„I'm just trying to be nice to you." Lucas answered and held her from falling down.

„I know guys. They always try to be nice to me if they want something. So what do you want?"

„Nothing."

They finally reached the top of stairs but Peyton almost fell down again.

„Okay. Then I can go home. Where are my keys?" She asked and tried to hold herself up. That wasn't easy at all after lots of drinking.

„You can't go home alone. You can't drive. Look at yourself! You're drunk as hell!"

„Ah, just give me a break. Go and find someone else to help."

"Fine. Then help yourself. I'm out of here."

Lucas ran downstairs and went to the living room. He was looking around and found a very beautiful girl, who was strange to him with some guy. He looked at them for a while. That guy seemed to be really interested in her but then something happened. The girl puked and that guy didn't seem to like it.

"Get off of me, bitch." The guy said and repelled the girl. She just fell down to the floor and no one seemed to notice it. Lucas didn't know what to do. He didn't know that girl. Maybe she's like Peyton – nasty and arrogant. But deep down in his heart he knew he couldn't leave her lying there. He approached her and gave her a hand. The girl grabbed his hand and pushed herself up. She seemed to be even more drunk than Peyton. Lucas dragged her outside and they sat down to a bench underneath the big willow near a little pond. When they sat down the girl puked again. Then she burst into tears and started wailing.

"I'm so pathetic. I'm popular, wanted and hot. I'm a cheerleader. I'm everything a guy wants. I can get any guy I want. But still I'm not happy."

"And that's why you are drinking?"

"Pretty much yes. I hate myself right now."

"Don't say that. You're a beautiful girl. I'm pretty sure you will find the guy who's right for you and he will make you happy."

"How do you know that?"

"I promise you. You will be happy."

Hearing a word 'happy' made her cry even more. She put her head to Lucas' chest and Lucas wrapped his arms around her.

Next day Lucas had a game and when he walked to the gym he was really surprised to see the girl from the party stretching with other girls. He just stood at the door and looked at her. He stepped in and walked to coach without taking his eyes off of that girl. He noticed that girl is smiling to him and he smiled back. He didn't think she would remember him because she was too drunk last night. But the girl stood up and walked up to him.

"Hi. Are you the guy who helped me last night at the party?"

"Yes, I am."

"I just wanted to say thank you. I couldn't even imagine what would have happened if you wouldn't took me away."

"It's okay."

Girl smiled to Lucas, turned around and started walking but stopped then.

"By the way, I'm Brooke. Brooke Davis." She said and gave a seductive smile to Lucas.

"I'm Lucas. Lucas Scott." Lucas answered with a sweet smile.

Brooke walked back to other girls and they all giggled. Only Peyton looked like she's miles away from reality.

During the game, Lucas couldn't keep his eyes off of Brooke. After the game, Peyton walked up to him.

"I can see you have your eye on the new girl already."

"We talked a bit at the party. Nothing more."

"Yeah. And you left me sleeping in the middle of the hallway."

"I wanted to help you."

"Yeah, you wanted. But Brooke was way more important, right?"

"You sent me away and didn't want my help. I can't help you if you don't want to."

"What an amazing friend you are. Thanks for nothing!"

Peyton walked away furiously. She walked out, not to Nathan. And Nathan didn't seem to like it. So he walked up to Lucas to talk some things through.

"Hey you. Keep your hands off my girlfriend."

"She came to me. So tell her to keep off of me."

"Yeah right."

Nathan and his mates walked away. After awhile Lucas set himself to go home but he went to the river court instead. After some time just sitting there, he heard someone approaching him. He turned around and he saw Brooke.

"Hey cutie. Why are you sitting here alone? Shouldn't you be celebrating another win right now?"

"I guess I should but I don't have mood for this."

"Oh. What's wrong?" Brooke asked with a bit carping voice and sat next to him.

"Actually nothing. I just didn't feel like going."

"And what makes you feel better?"

"I don't know."

"But tell me what bothers you."

"You know, there are lots of things that bother me. Right now I feel like I don't belong anywhere. I hate that basketball team but I can quit it. I have to fight back. I hate Nathan. And I hate my dad."

"What's up with Nathan? He's a great guy, isn't he?"

"He is my half-brother, that's what's up with him."

"Really? Oh, yeah. You are both Scotts. I couldn't think about something like that. I thought it's just a coincidence. So, Dan Scott is your father then?"

"Yeah, unfortunately. And they both are scared that I'm a better player than Nathan. That's why he doesn't leave me alone."

"And I thought he is a nice guy. But his girlfriend Peyton is really cool girl."

"You really think so?"

"Yeah, she's my only friend around here!"

"But what about me? I'm not your friend?"

"Of course you are. She's my only girlfriend. You know, it's pretty hard to win the adherence of other cheerleaders if you are a new girl.

"So you like cheer leading and you're happy with your life?"

"Yeah. Why shouldn't I?"

"You spoke differently last night."

"I was drunk! I didn't even know my name."

They both laughed and then suddenly their looks met. Those hazel eyes looked deep into those blue eyes. That was the moment of silence.

"Look. I have to go home now." Brooke suddenly broke the silence, like she was scared of something.

"It was really good to have a chat with you." Lucas said to her and took her hands. "I hope we will talk again. Soon."

Brooke answered with a sweet smile and started walking away.

"Wait. I can ride you home." Lucas stopped her.

They both jumped to the car and drove away.


	2. Keep holding on

**Keep holding on**

„Hey Peyton. Can I ask you something?" Brooke suddenly asked when they both lied on Peyton's bed and just watched the ceiling.

„Of course."

„Do you know anything about Lucas Scott?"

„I know a lot about him, although I only know him for a very short time. He's always there where I am. He's my boyfriend's half-brother. I always have to stand between them because Lucas like always follows me. But he's kind of cute."

„So you are interested in him?"

Peyton gave her an evil look. But Brooke only laughed at her.

„Okay. I will shut up!" Brooke said when she noticed Peyton's annoyed look.

„We should go to the practice now." Peyton said and pulled Brooke up from the bed.

When they reached the gym, Brooke went to girls and Peyton to Nathan. She leaned to Nathan and gave him a kiss to lips. After that Peyton caught Lucas' eye but he turned away when Nathan looked at him too. And then Lucas saw Brooke. She was smiling to him again. Of course she smiles to him, they're good friends he thought and went to her.

„Hi Brooke!" He said when he was standing behind Brooke.

„Are you talking to me, cutie?" Brooke turned around and asked. She had that smile on her face again. The one which makes guys go weak.

„Can you see some other Brooke around here?" Lucas raised his eyebrow.

„You are kind of sweet when you do that with your eyebrow." Brooke got little flirty.

„And you are cute when you're smiling." Lucas said. He just had to answer somehow. They were smiling to each other and it was a moment when they just enjoyed looking and stilling.

„That's enough. We have to practice Brooke." Peyton stepped into Brooke and Lucas' conversation. She didn't seem to be happy about them talking.

„Okay, miss we-have-to-practice. Bye Luke." Brooke answered and rolled her eyes.

„Bye Brooke. See you later." Lucas said and wave with hand to Brooke. She did the same thing.

After the training Lucas went to Karen's cafe and sat down beside the table. Haley walked towards him.

„Hi Lucas." She said when she cleaned tables but Lucas didn't hear her.

"Lucas? Are you still here?" She asked when she noticed that Lucas isn't listening to her.

"Yeah. What?"

"Is everything okay?" Haley asked and sat beside the table with Lucas.

"I'm just thinking." Lucas answered and looked out of the window. He was still lost in thoughts.

"About what?"

"Rather who."

"Oh, I see. Who's that girl?" Haley turned spiteful.

"You know this new girl Brooke Davis?"

"This one? She is … absolutely not your type. She's a Barbie!"

"That's what you see. But you don't know her. I talked to her other night at the river court. She seemed to be really sweet girl."

"Umm. Okay, if that's what you think. But what about Peyton? I thought you two are together or something."

"That's a bit complicated. She's too stubborn sometimes. It's really hard to understand her. I thought I really understand her and I can be there for her but I was wrong."

"Okay then. But I have to go now. I had to go to the tutoring centre." Haley said and stood up. Lucas didn't even notice her leaving and she walked away. But suddenly Lucas said:

"You are the best friend I could ever have."

"You too, Luke."

They both smiled and Haley walked away. Soon Lucas stood up and left too. He went for a walk. When he passed Peyton's house he stopped and just looked at it. After awhile he saw Brooke running out of the house.

"Hey, Brooke! Where are you running?" He stopped Brooke and walked towards her.

"I'm going home." Brooke answered breathlessly.

"Why you just ran out? Is everything okay?"

"I'm okay. But Peyton just shouted at me and sent me away with no reason. I think she's the one who has a problem, not me." She said and ran away leaving Lucas confused. After some thinking he went to house. He just walked in and found Peyton lying on her bed. She wasn't really happy about seeing Lucas.

"Go away." She said and turned to other side, turning her back to Lucas.

"What's wrong?" Lucas asked and sat down to bedside.

"Please just leave. I don't want to see anyone." Peyton answered and ignored Lucas. He was forced to leave even if he didn't want to. He just wanted to know what's wrong.

He went to the river court to be alone. After a while throwing some free-throws a mysterious girl walked towards him. She had long blond hair and tall legs, wearing just a small top and 15 cm miniskirt. Lucas was like charmed when he saw her. The girl only continued walking and soon she reached to Lucas.

"Hi hottie. What are you doing here alone?" Girl asked and almost leaned on Lucas.

"Playing basketball as you can see."

"You are playing basketball alone? That's interesting."

"I just wanted to be alone."

"Oh. So I'm harassing you?"

"No. Don't be silly. I'm always open for new acquaintances."

"That's good! My name is Nicole Carter but my friends always call me Nic."

"Nice to meet you Nic. I'm Lucas Scott."

They shook hands and Nic moved herself even closer to Lucas. They didn't even noticed Brooke who was watching them further away. She watched how Nic leaned to Lucas and her lips almost touched Lucas' lips. Lucas was very flirty too. And now Brooke felt like something stabbed her heart. Was that jealousy? She had never felt something like that and she was confused so she reckoned that it's better if she leaves.

Later when Lucas was at home in his room, Peyton came to him and knocked at the door. Lucas asked her to come in but she didn't open the door and Lucas had to do it by himself. He was shocked to see forceless and tatter Peyton standing at his door. He pulled her in and put her to his bed. He smelled her breath and it was obvious that she was drunk.

"What's wrong with you Peyton?" Lucas tried to contact to Peyton.

"My life is sooooo over. I don't want to live anymore." She whined and got up from the bed and walked towards the window.

"What are you talking about? Has anything happened?" Lucas asked and followed her.

"A little thing happened. Just a little mistake. But it will be here with me forever."

"Tell me already!"

"Okay, you wanted it." She turned around and faced Lucas. "I'm pregnant."

"WHAT? Does Nathan already know?" He panicked around the room and tried to make Peyton tell him everything about it.

"Why he has to know?" Peyton asked and turned around to look out of the window again.

"He's the father, isn't he?" Lucas was confused.

"He isn't." Peyton said. She turned around. "It's yours, Lucas."

Lucas couldn't get a word out of his mouth. He just stand right there and stared at Peyton. For him it was like history repeating.


	3. Complicated

I'm sorry you had to wait. I hope I have more time and next chapters will be up faster. This chapter is shorter. Sorry for that too. But I hope you enjoy reading it. :)

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**Complicated**

Peyton and Lucas still stood in the middle of Lucas' room and stared at each other. Peyton cried and Lucas was all messed up. He couldn't even think.

„But wait a second. How do you know it's mine? How can you be sure?" Lucas asked. He almost yelled at Peyton.

„Nathan always uses condoms." Peyton answered with shaky voice.

„We have slept together only once. I can't believe it. It can't be true."

„But it is, Lucas. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry."

„You don't have to be sorry, Peyton. It's my child too. I'll give you anything you need. I'll be there for you. You're not alone." Lucas said and hugged Peyton. He wanted to tell Peyton that everything is okay but he couldn't. Everything was far away from okay.

Next day at the school he was like miles away. He and Haley walked along the hallway to go to the lockers. Lucas almost passed his locker but Haley pulled him back.

„What's wrong with you today?" Haley asked but Lucas still didn't listen to her. She punched him and he boggled.

„What?" He asked when he saw Haley's furious face.

„Something's wrong with you but you don't want to tell me what it is."

„Yeah. There is something but I'll tell you about it after school. I don't want to talk about it here. Now I got to find Peyton. See you later." He said and almost ran away, leaving Haley only watching after him.

Lucas ran around the school and tried to find Peyton. Soon he saw Brooke sitting alone on a bench and walked to her.

„Where's Peyton?" He asked when he sat down next to Brooke.

„You're so impolite. You should say hi first. But Peyton is at home."

„Why? Is something wrong?" Lucas panicked and made Brooke worry.

„She just told me she doesn't want to come to school. She has bad mood or something. But is there something else? Something I should know?"

„Oh. I got to see her." Lucas said and stood up.

„Lucas." Brooke stopped him. „ You can tell me what's wrong. I'm Peyton's friend."

After realizing Brooke's worry, he sat back to tell her everything.

„I don't know if she allows me to talk about it but I'll tell you because I know you're a good friend. But it's pretty shocking. Peyton is pregnant."

Brooke couldn't believe what she just heard. Her mouth was left opened because of that surprise. She shook her head. It was just unbelievable.

„Does Nathan know about it? Father of the child should know about it. If she won't tell him I'll do it. But he has to know." Brooke said edgily and waited for Lucas to comply.

"Nathan can't get to know about it. He's not the father." Lucas shed his head.

"Who is it then?" Brooke yelled at him. But Lucas didn't want to tell it. He even didn't want to look at her and saw her reaction.

"LUCAS! Look at me and tell me who is it!" Brooke couldn't wait any longer. Lucas raised his head and looked at Brooke.

"I'm the father." He said and saw a deep disappointment in Brooke's eyes.

"Oh. I get it now." Brooke said and tried to hold back tears. "Now I know who you are, Lucas Scott. And you're definitely not that guy who I thought you to be."

"Brooke. It's not like that. It was just one time." Lucas tried to explain.

"Look, I don't need your explanations. I thought you're different but you're same as all the guys. Sleeping around, flirting with every girl who comes to you and pretending to be nice guy to get them to bed. That's disgusting." Brooke threw everything she thought at Lucas and walked away. That made Lucas feeling even worse than before.

Brooke decided to skip classes and go to see her best friend. She was disappointed but she couldn't leave Peyton alone with this. She walked to Peyton's house and found her lying on the bed. At first she turned off the web cam and then sat down to the bed behind Peyton.

"How are you?" She asked and Peyton turned herself around.

"I'm fine. Why are you here anyway?" Peyton asked and looked at Brooke with confused look.

"Lucas told me everything and I thought you might need a friend."

Peyton push herself up and they both smiled.

"Come here." She said and hugged Brooke. "But you should go back to school."

"No. We should do some girly stuff together. Like go to shopping or eat a lot of chocolate. That would be fun!" Brooke got enthusiastic and jumped around the room.

"Brooke I'm pregnant, not heartbroken." Peyton said and it Brooke stopped.

"Oops. My bad." Brooke said and sat down quickly. They both laughed at her.

At the night Lucas turned up at Brooke's house. He knocked at the door. When Brooke saw Lucas, she walked away from the door and didn't open it.

"Brooke, please open the door." He begged Brooke. However, after few minutes Brooke opened the door but she didn't let Lucas to come in.

"What do you want? I'm in hurry." She asked arrogantly and tired to hide her true feelings. Lucas looked at Brooke and tried to understand if she's faking or she really doesn't want to see him ever again.

"I just wanted to talk about things you said to me at school." Lucas said and looked at Brooke's face. Seemed like she didn't want to talk and Lucas didn't continue.

"Didn't you hear me? I'm in hurry. I got to get myself ready for the party. All those guys out there are waiting for me. So if you want to talk to me come back tomorrow. Bye." Brooke said and tried to close the door but Lucas stopped her.

"I guess it's the party for basketball team where I'm not going. But you are going to party when your best friend needs you so much? What kind of friend would do something like that?" Lucas tried to stop Brooke from going to the party.

"We both are invited to the party and I didn't want to go but Peyton told me to go. So don't try to change my mind. I'm going." Brooke closed the door and went to her room. She looked at the mirror. All she could see was a sad girl with tears in her eyes. She looked pathetic to herself.

"Brooke Davis crying because of guys - that's not right at all." She said to herself, dried tears and smiled to herself.

Lucas went back to home but he couldn't just be there and do nothing. He raced around from room to room and tried to think what to do with Peyton and Brooke. But one there were on thing he was sure about – he needed to talk to Brooke and that couldn't wait. He went to his mother's café to find Haley.

"Hey Hales. Come to the party with me to Nathan's beach house." He said when he saw Haley and sat down beside the counter table.

"Oh, I can't come. I have to work. And I think it's not my kind of company there." Haley answered and went to clean the tables. The Karen came out from the kitchen.

"Haley you can go if you want to. There's not much work right now and I can pull off." She said and Haley only rolled her eyes. Lucas looked at her with appealing face and Haley had to give in and go to the party.

Preview:

What happens to Brooke at the party?

Will Lucas arrive to the party too late?

What ruins Lucas and Haley's friendship?

Lucas had to choose between Brooke and Peyton. Which one he will choose?


	4. Never the same

Lucas and Haley's fight should have been in this chapter but will be in the next one. I apologize for that. I hope you excuse me. :)

**Ne****ver the same**

Finally Haley and Lucas arrived to the party. They parked the car and went inside. It supposed to be a party for Ravens but there were lots of strange people who even weren't from Tree Hill. Everybody were dancing and drinking. They took drinks from a table and found a place to sit. Lucas was looking for Brooke.

„It's just crazy. Why are we here anyway?" Haley asked from Lucas.

„I want to talk to Brooke. But I can't find her." Lucas answered and looked around again. Haley looked around too and suddenly look on her face totally changed.

„Oh. I found her. I don't suggest you to look there." She said, still looking at the place where she saw Brooke. Now Lucas looked there too. He saw Brooke in a small red top and mini skirt making out with some strange guy who seemed to be some rich kid from somewhere else. Lucas just stared at them.

„Lucas. Stop staring at them. It's weird." Haley said and shook Lucas.

„Okay, okay."

„I thought you are together and stuff. What happened?" Haley tried to get her friend talking.

„My world fell apart. That's what happened." Lucas said and took a sup from his cup.

„But how? Has it anything to do with Peyton?"

„Yeah. She's pregnant and I'm the father. I can't believe I'm talking about it so easily. It seems so unbelievable for me. And I can't tell mom about it."

Haley was so surprised she couldn't get words out of her mouth. Lucas noticed it.

„You don't have to say anything. We can talk about it tomorrow. Actually, I don't want to talk about it at all. So it's good if you don't say a word." He said and drained his cup.

Same time at the balcony Brooke was making out with a guy named Felix. He had dark eyes and swarthy skin. His dark brown hair was nicely set with gel and he wore a white coat and stylish jeans. He was like a dream guy for every girl.

„I'm sorry but I have to go." He said to Brooke when he tried to held her up.

„Oh. Already going? That's sad." Brooke answered and laughed. „But will you call me?" She suddenly turned sad. She gave Felix a puppy look.

„Of course. Don't worry about it." Felix said and started walking away. But Brooke stopped him.

„I'll send you to the door. Wherever it is." She said and Felix grabbed her hand to pull her with him. They walked through the house to the door and Felix left. Brooke tottered back to the living room where Lucas and Haley were. She flopped down next to Haley and almost spilt her drink on Haley. She looked at Haley and laughed.

„You look soooo sober. Do you want to drink?" She asked and pinned the cup under Haley's nose. Haley pushed her hand back.

„Okay." She said and pushed one shoulder up in a half-shrug. „I'll drink it." She drained her cup.

„Brooke you should go home. You have drunk too much." Lucas said at the other side of the sofa.

„You want to drive me home? I think that's not a good idea. I don't want to get pregnant. I'm too young for that." She flouted Lucas and laughed at him. Then she pulled herself up from the sofa and disappeared to the crowd. Lucas looked around to see if anyone heard Brooke but seemed like they didn't.

Brooke went upstairs and tried to find a free bedroom because she wasn't feeling too good after too much drinking. She plodded in the middle of the corridor and fell down. She almost fell asleep right there until some strange guy helped her up and dragged her to bedroom. Brooke lied on bed and the stranger sat on the bedside.

"You look bad. I guess you're not feeling good. I can give you something that makes you feel better." The guy told to Brooke.

"Yeah. That would be great." Brooke answered.

"Take this. You'll be better soon." The guy gave Brooke a cup with some drink and left the room. Brooke looked at the cup and without a doubt she drained it. After a while lying on the bed she felt even more dizzy than before and soon she nauseate. She tried to get up and found a bathroom but she fell down to the floor.

"I have to find Brooke before she does something stupid." Lucas said to Haley when they still sat downstairs at the same place as before. "I need to talk to her."

"I don't think it's a good idea. She's drunk and she'll make things only worse. You should wait until tomorrow." Haley advised her best friend. But Lucas didn't listen to her. He stood up and walked away from Haley. He walked around in the house and asked people if they had seen Brooke. They led Lucas upstairs. He looked in every bedroom until he found Brooke in the last room, lying on the floor. He thought she's sleeping and tried to wake her up but she didn't. She was unconscious. He barged out of the room to find a phone but the house was so full of people that he couldn't get to the phone. So he went back to the room where Brooke was, lifted her up and carried downstairs. Haley saw them coming and ran towards them.

"What's wrong with Brooke?" She asked when she reached them.

"She doesn't wake up. I don't know what's wrong. I couldn't find a phone so I'm taking her to the hospital." Lucas explained.

"I'm coming with you. Let's go." Haley said and they left the house. Lucas put Brooke to the back seat and they drove to the hospital.

"We need a doctor here!" Lucas yelled when they entered hospital corridor. Soon a doctor came.

"What happened to her?" He asked Lucas.

"She was at the party and drank a lot alcohol. I'm not sure if anything else happened." Lucas said and watched how medics took Brooke away with them. Soon doctor followed them. Haley and Lucas sat down.

"It's all my fault." He said. "I should had took her home when I saw how bad she looked. Now I can't do anything to help her."

"Luke, you can't blame yourself. It's not your fault. Brooke drank too much and it's got nothing to do with you." Haley tried to calm Lucas down. Lucas only put his head to her shoulder and tears poured to his eyes. He didn't sit there for a long time. Soon he stood up and went to the phone. He had to tell Peyton about it. Soon Peyton arrived to hospital.

"Why didn't you stop her? You just watched how she destroyed herself. How could you?" Peyton accused Lucas and almost punched him. But instead of it she broke down and cried. Lucas wrapped his arms around her and held her close. They sat down next to Haley and waited for doctor. After an hour the doctor finally came. He walked towards them and they jumped up from their chairs.

"How is she?" Peyton asked when doctor came closer. She was still crying.

"I'm sorry to tell you that her condition is very bad. There are too much alcohol in her blood and drugs made things even worse."

"Drugs?" Lucas asked so loudly that all the hospital could hear that.

"Yes. She's drugged and there's another bad thing. She's in coma and in her condition it's hard to come out."

"She may not wake up?" Peyton asked with shaky voice. She couldn't hold back tears.

Doctor nodded. "I'm sorry."

"Can we see her?" Lucas asked. He knew that Peyton wanted it too but she just couldn't talk right now.

"Yes. But only one person in one time." Doctor said and walked away.

"You go first." Lucas told to Peyton and sent her to the room where Brooke lied. Peyton walked in. She had hate hospital rooms since her mother died in there. She felt like some kind of weight on her heart and that crushed her soul. She looked at Brooke and she reminded her mother. She knows what it feels like to loose a dear person and she doesn't want to feel it ever again. She took a deep breath and walked to Brooke's bed. She took a chair what stood under the window and moved it next to the bed. She sat down and held Brooke's hand.

"I hope you hear me, Brooke. I want you to know that I'm here. I'm always here. And when you'll get out of here we'll do all those crazy things you like to do." Tears fell down from her eyes. "I want you to wake up soon. I'm going to miss you. You've changed my life and made me take everything that life gives me. You're my best friend, Brooke Davis, and I don't want to lose you. So you better get well soon. But I have to go now. Lucas wants to see you too. I'll be back, don't worry." She stood up, looked at Brooke and walked out. And Lucas came in. He sat down to the chair and stilled for few minutes. Maybe it was just because he didn't know what to say. Nothing's going to change things that had happened. He said something though.

"I'm sorry Brooke. I'm sorry that I didn't do anything to stop you from drinking. And I'm sorry for making you think that I'm a bad person. Deep inside I'm the guy you thought I am. Life just doesn't give me a chance to be myself. I don't know you much right now but I'm sure you understand me. But I know that you shine like the sun in the sky and make everyone around you smile. You are a wild girl and that's why I like you. You are a good friend. We all want you to wake up soon."

In the morning Lucas was still in Brooke's room. He was sleeping on the armchair. Haley came to wake him up.

"Hey Luke, its morning. Wake up now." Haley whispered to Lucas' ear. Lucas opened his eyes and looked around. He rose up slowly and drowsily, wrung himself and smiled to Haley. He looked at Brooke and turned a bit sad.

"Let's go to the café and grab something to eat. You haven't eaten for a long time." Haley said when Lucas had finally completely risen up from the armchair.

"I can't Hales. I'm sorry. I got to see Peyton. I have something to do." Lucas answered and gave Haley a clever smile. They left the hospital. Lucas dropped Haley off and drove to Peyton's house. He ran out of the car like he was in hurry, entered the house and went straight to Peyton's room. He found Peyton lying on her bed and drawing as usual.

"Hello Lucas. Why are you barging around like it's a word war three? Is something wrong with Brooke?" Peyton started to worry about Brooke when she saw breathless Lucas standing on her door.

"Nah, she's still the same. I just wanted to talk to you about something." Lucas said with a little nervous tone in his voice.

"Tell me already."

"I was just thinking that we are having a baby and I want to be with you so much." He took a deep breath before saying the main thing. "Will you marry me, Peyton Sawyer?" He finally asked and felt relief. He looked at Peyton with a grin on his face. Peyton was pleasantly surprised.

"Oh my god. I don't know what to say." She hardly got words out of her mouth.

"Just say yes or no."

"Yes. I will marry you, Lucas Scott." Peyton grinned and jumped up from the bed. She walked towards Lucas. "You're the best guy in the world. I love you." She said and kissed Lucas to lips.

_... and you swore that you were bound for glory  
And for wanting you had no shame  
But I loved you  
And then I lost you  
And I will never be the same ..._

Preview:

Will Lucas and Peyton get married?

Will Brooke come out from the coma?

One person's mistake will tear old friends apart.

Lyrics in the end of the chapter are from Melissa Etheridge's song I Will Never Be The Same.


	5. Love hurts

**Love hurts**

After Lucas' proposal, Peyton went to the hospital to tell news to her best friend. She didn't feel bad about being to hospital because she was the happiest woman on earth. She brought Brooke flowers and put them to the cupboard next to her bed.

„Beautiful flowers, don't you think?" She talked with Brooke who apparently didn't hear it but that was okay for Peyton. She dragged curtains off the window and all the room was filled with sunshine. "I know you like sunshine." She sat down next to Brooke's bed. "I have some wonderful news to you about me and Lucas. We are getting married. He's a good guy. I know he loves me and wants to raise our child with me. We are going to be a sweet little family and you're going to be our child's godmother."

People's hustle behind the door interrupted her. Those were other cheerleaders who wanted to see Brooke. She walked to the door and let them in.

"Hey girls. Come in. I'm going anyway. I have to bring some stuff for her." Peyton said and walked out. She went to Brooke's place. When she was looking for some clothes for Brooke, she found Brooke's diary. It was opened. She turned pages and found a entry that cut to her heart.

_I finally found a guy that I really like and now he can't be mine. He slept with __Peyton once, at least he said so, and now Peyton is pregnant. And the other day I saw him flirting with one of the cheerleaders. It feels like he's not a serious guy but when I first met him I was like blown away. Okay, actually I don't remember the first time we met because I was too drunk but the second time was amazing. He seemed to be so kind, sweet and gentle. I've never loved a guy and now when I do, my new best friend gets that guy. What a wonderful world, really. _

"Brooke loves Lucas." Peyton said to herself and shook head.

"So what was that important thing you had to do before?" Haley bombed Lucas with questions when they sat on the doorstep of Lucas' house. She was too curious.

"I had to propose Peyton." Lucas answered.

"What? I thought you liked Brooke. Or am I missing something?" Haley was confused.

"Look I have to be with Peyton. I can't leave her alone with our child like Dan did with my mom. I have responsibility. I do like Brooke but I have to do what's best for the child."

"You hurt yourself for someone else. That's a brave thing to do. But have you told to Nathan already? Does he know?"

"We'll keep it in secret for a while. When the time is right we'll tell him."

"If you say so. But I'm still worried about you. Do you know what it means to be married to a woman you don't love and rise a child at the same time seeing a woman you love being with someone else?"

"I know it hurts but there's nothing to do. I can't turn back the time."

"Okay. I got to go now. See you later?"

"Yeah."

Haley took her books and walked out from the garden. On her way she was so deep in thoughts that she didn't notice anyone else on the street until she ran into someone. All her books fell down and she squatted to pick them up.

"I'm sorry. I was thinking about Lucas and Peyton and all that pregnancy stuff around them and I didn't notice you coming." She apologized without raising her head.

"What did you just said?" Haley heard familiar male voice asking. She raised her head to see if she heard right. She was shocked to see Nathan standing in front of her.

Few minutes later Nathan angrily barged to Peyton's house to find an explanation for what he just heard from Haley.

"Is that true that you are having Lucas Scott's child?" He yelled at Peyton when he walked into her room.

"Who told you that?"

"That doesn't matter. I want to know if it's true."

"Yes. It's true. Are you happy now?"

"That son of a bitch will pay for it." Nathan said quietly and barged out again.

At the same time Lucas sat next to Brooke in hospital. He held Brooke's hand in between of his hands. He just sat there and looked at Brooke. Suddenly he felt Brooke's hand moving.

"Brooke? Brooke!" He screamed when he saw Brooke slowly blinking her eyes.

"Huh?" Brooke said. She was too weak to talk.

"How are you feeling yourself?" Lucas asked and grinned.

"Like a car has drove over me." She said and opened her eyes completely. Tears fell down from her eyes. It was because of all that Peyton said before. Yes, she heard everything and it hurt her so much but she couldn't tell Lucas about it.

"Oh, you're crying." Lucas said when he noticed tears in Brooke's eyes. He took a napkin from his pocket, bowed down to her and dried tears. He stayed where he was and looked to Brooke's eyes. "You know Brooke, you're an amazing girl. So beautiful and strong." He said and waited for Brooke to answer but she only smiled to him. A second later Nathan walked to the room. Lucas soon realized that he knew about Peyton pregnancy.

"How dared you to sleep with my girlfriend?" He hollered on Lucas.

"I guess you weren't good enough." Lucas tried to play tough.

"And now you are proud of yourself? Seventeen years old with a kid. Congratulations!" He clapped hands and grinned gloatingly. Lucas couldn't hold himself back and ran at Nathan. "Keep away from her from now. She's with me." He said and held Nathan from his shirt. Nathan unbounded himself. "Let go of me. You can keep that bitch to yourself. I don't want her anymore." He said and walked away.

"Thanks for a sweet wake up greeting." Brooke said and rolled her eyes. Lucas walked back to her bed.

"I wanted you to know that me and Peyton …" He started.

"Are getting married? Yeah, I already know." Brooke interrupted him and continued.

"How do you know?"

"Peyton was here before and I heard her talking."

"You were awake before?"

"No. When I was in coma I heard everything all the time. Every single word you both said."

Lucas only half-smiled. Is there a chance that Brooke heard him and knows who he really is and that he really likes her?

Later Lucas and Haley met at the café. Haley made coffee for them and they sat down beside a free table.

"Somebody told Nathan that Peyton is pregnant and I'm the father." Lucas complained and reckoned Haley to feel for him but Haley shed her head and didn't look at Lucas at all.

"Haley?" Lucas said but Haley still didn't look at her. "Did you…?" Lucas got angrier.

"Yes." She said and nodded. Lucas could hear quiet sobbing. "But I didn't mean to. He just … ran to me … and I said it so quietly … like to myself … I'm really, really sorry Lucas." Now she looked at Lucas and tears were heavily falling down from her eyes.

"How could you Hales? I trusted you. I don't care if it was an accident or whatever. I told you we won't tell him. How can I trust you anymore?" Lucas yelled at Haley and walked out furiously. Karen heard yelling from the kitchen and came to see what's going on. At that moment every single person in the café looked at teary Haley. But she couldn't stand it and ran out too.

Lucas furiously threw a ball to basket hoop at the river court and he didn't notice Peyton coming closer.

"Lucas!" Peyton hollered. "You look angry." She said when she got to Lucas.

"Yeah. I am angry." Lucas answered and threw a ball once again.

"Because of Nathan got to know?" Peyton looked after the ball.

"Mostly because of who told it to him." Lucas caught the ball and walked back at the same time bouncing it. He stopped when he was next to Peyton.

"I thought it just spread through someone stranger." Peyton looked at Lucas.

"No. Haley told him, accidentally like she said. But I told her we won't tell Nathan about it. I trusted her." Lucas said angrily and threw the ball again but missed this time.

"Don't be mad at her. If it was really just an accident then it's okay. We should have told him sooner or later." Peyton tried to make Lucas understand. "Actually… I wanted to talk about something else." Peyton said. She had thought about Brooke's diary all day and she just couldn't get it out of her head.

"I'm listening." Lucas answered and stopped throwing to listen to Peyton. But Peyton didn't say anything. She thought a bit.

"Never mind." She said suddenly. "I have to go now. See you later. Love you." She gave Lucas a peck and walked away quickly. She couldn't deal with losing Lucas. She just kept that information to herself. She hurt her best friend but she couldn't help it. She loves Lucas too much.

At the evening Brooke got out from the hospital. She walked to her room with those few things she had in hospital in one hand.

"Like I wasn't away from home. So little things with me. That is so wrong." Brooke said when she put away her clothes. When she walked to her desk she didn't found her diary. She looked around the room and noticed the diary lying on the bed and it was closed.

"Somebody has read my diary." Brooke said and had a warring look on her face.

_... I saw a very gentle side of him  
That took my __heart__ and made __it__ sing  
I wish he'd run away and hide with me  
Love hurts so much more than it seems  
There was __one__ thing I didn't show  
I love him and he doesn't know..._

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Preview:

Will Lucas forgive to Haley?

Who is Brooke's new love interest?

Will Peyton ignore knowing that Brooke has feelings for Lucas?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lyrics at the end of the chapter are from Zhane's song Crush.


	6. Nice to meet you anyway

Felix is not the one from the show. He's a fictional character.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Nice to meet you anyway**

„You are in school already! It's good to see you're okay." Peyton cheered when she met with Brooke next morning at the front of the school.

„Thanks. Umm. Did you bring me some things to hospital?" Brooke asked Peyton after a bit thinking how to say it right.

„Yeah." She answered blandly. But she wasn't so blandly at all. She still had thoughts of the diary and Brooke's feelings in her head.

„And you definitely didn't read my diary. You didn't close it and you didn't put it back to the wrong place. That wasn't you, right?" Brooke attacked Peyton with a flow of accusing questions. Peyton only looked away from Brooke and shook her head.

„I just noticed that it was ..." She started explaining.

„Opened? That doesn't matter." Brooke interrupted Peyton and raised her voice.

„I'm sorry Brooke." Peyton said and tried to keep things cool.

„Apology rejected! Don't you know that diary is a person's personal thing? Haven't you got some things you don't want to tell others? Can you ever think what others would feel?" Brooke hollered at Peyton and all students around were now watching at them. But Peyton stilled and that made Brooke mad. „I guess not. You don't care about others because you are just one disregardful self-centered heartless bitch." Brooke put a point to their conversation and walked away. She walked on and didn't look around. Soon she walked into someone who put his arms to her hips to stop her.

„Are you in a hurry?" Familiar voice asked and Brooke finally looked who stopped her.

„Oh. Hi Felix. I didn't see you coming." Brooke excused and felt a bit embarrassed.

„I see. That's okay. I wanted to see you anyway."

„Me? Oh." Brooke was surprised and she blushed.

„I heard you are in hospital and I wanted to visit you but I didn't realize that you'll get out that soon. So how are you?"

„I'm fine. At least I was until I had a fight with my ex best friend aka biggest bitch in the whole world." Brooke said with whiny voice and rolled her eyes.

"Whoa. That's harsh. What happened?" Felix seemed to be really interested in why Brooke wasn't fine.

"She did something that made me doubt in her trust." Brooke tried to twiddle herself out from telling Felix she keeps a diary. Then a bell rang and saved her. "I got to go to the class now. See you later?" She whirred.

"Yeah, sure." Felix answered drowsily and looked after Brooke with a big confusion.

After classes Lucas hooked up with Peyton in the front of the school. They shared a kiss and found a bench to sit down. They chatted and laughed but when Nathan and other guys from the basketball team came towards them all their fun was gone.

"Hey, look whose there – the young mommy and the prince of her dreams." Tim said and pointed at Lucas and Peyton. Lucas got angry and stood up but Peyton held him back by dragging him by his shirt.

"C'mon let's go. This might get ugly. He almost kicked my ass already." Nathan said and all the guys laughed with him. After awhile they walked way.

"That was mean." Peyton said resentfully. "I really thought that Nathan likes me. But I've never felt that he loves me. He didn't even fight for me. He just let you have me. So our relationship was pretty pointless."

"And I thought that a good relationship was broken up."

"You know, I'm happy that we are together. For the first time I feel like someone cares about me and that feeling is so damn fine. I want to be with you, Luke. I love you." Peyton spoke to Lucas with a grin on her face.

"Yeah. Me too." Lucas answered and cuddled Peyton. He tried to sound as believable as possible. He didn't want to hurt Peyton.

"Hey buddy. Do you have some time for me?" Brooke hailed when she saw Lucas walking away from school in front of her. Lucas turned his head and looked back. When he saw Brooke, he stopped and waited for her.

"We can hang out together or something sometime if you want to." Lucas offered. After that he raised his eyebrow and managed a little cute smile to his face. From the look on Brooke's face Lucas could read that Brooke didn't like utterance hang out.

"Oh, stop it." Brooke said and punched Lucas' forearm. "I hate hanging out. That utterance I mean. That sounds like watching TV and drinking beer all day long! Horrible, isn't it?"

"Yeah. A bit." Lucas answered to her and still had that smile on his face. Nothing could make him happier than watching Brooke being cute and cheery. Especially after all that happened to her. She's an amazing girl. So strong and independent.

"A bit? C'mon, you can't be serious! Do you want to say that you actually like watching TV and drinking beer? Gee, you got to be kidding me!"

"Okay. That was just a joke." Lucas started laughing after seeing Brooke's confused face and made Brooke laugh too. They were both laughing loudly in the middle of the street.

"That was a good one. Well done, comic boy. Want to walk me home now? That's what friends do, right?" Brooke asked and had that cute face so Lucas couldn't tell no. He just nodded and started walking away with Brooke. Soon they stopped.

"Lucas." They heard a female voice saying slightly away from their backs. They turned around and saw Peyton. She gave Lucas a look but didn't say any word.

"I'm coming. Bye Brooke. See you." Lucas said and walked to Peyton. He put his arm around her and they walked away. They didn't look back. Not even for once. They were gone.

"Slut." Brooke hissed trough teeth. She walked away too. But soon a red hot convertible stopped next to her.

"Are you walking home?" Felix asked from the car and smiled to Brooke.

"Yea, like, don't you have eyes?" Brooke muttered. She wasn't in mood for joking around. Peyton had totally ruined her day.

"Wow, you are huffy, miss Davis. Day hasn't got any better?" Felix asked and tried to make Brooke smile. But Brooke didn't feel like she wants to smile. She was tried and wanted to go home.

"I don't have mood for this. If you want to make me feel better you can drive me home." Brooke said. Felix nodded to her and she sat to the car.

"So what happened to your car?" Felix asked when they were on the way to Brooke's house. He tried to look at Brooke and to road at the same time.

"It's broken. I should get it back in few days. But I love your car. It's … hot." Brooke said after a little appraisal. She looked at Felix. He looked back and they both smiled.

"So this is my house. You can stop here or you can drive on if you want to. But that's not a good idea." Brooke said when she saw her house and the familiar red door.

"Okay. But can I ask you something?" Felix stopped in the front of Brooke's house and looked at her.

"Yeah. Of course." Brooke waited impatiently.

"You know, my older sister's husband has a very nice Italian restaurant and I was wondering if you would come there with me if I'll ask you. Maybe tonight?"

"Aww. Tonight is great. Pick me up at 8." Brooke smiled and stepped out of the car. She smiled and she was happy. She knew she has to move on.

Later at the evening Haley went to Lucas' house to talk about things that had happened lately. When she stepped into Lucas room, he was sitting on the bed with his laptop. And when she saw Lucas look, she was sure that she won't be forgiven but she wanted to try so badly.

"Lucas. I need to talk to you." She started talking when she approached Lucas. He didn't say anything so Haley continued. "I didn't betray your trust. I didn't want to tell him. It wasn't willful. I would never do something like that to you, to my best friend!" She sat down to the tool beside the desk.

"But you did tell him. We wanted to keep it to ourselves for a while." Lucas answered but didn't take his eyes off of the laptop screen.

"That would have come out sooner or later."

"Yeah. I know. But that doesn't make any difference. I trusted you. I told you about it before I told my mom. I haven't told her. Now she can find out somewhere else. That was an important thing to me and you betrayed me. I'm not sure if I can forgive you or ever trust you again." Lucas was now looking at Haley. His eyes were full of anger.

"Fine. If that's what you want." Haley stood up and walked to the door.

"Fine!" Lucas hollered angrily.

"Fine!" Haley said with lot of anger and slammed the door. Few minutes after that Karen walked into Lucas' room.

"What's wrong with you two?" She asked and sat down to the bedside. She noticed Lucas writing and closed his laptop. "I want you to talk to me. I'm your mother. You can tell me about everything."

"It's very very complicated." Lucas said. He wanted to tell her but it was harder than he had thought. "It's about me and Peyton." Lucas tried to start. He looked at Karen and got some strength from her peaceful look. "We slept together once and we didn't use condom. Now she's pregnant." He told everything with just one breath and without looking at Karen. But Karen didn't say anything and that forced Lucas to look at her. She was shocked and her eyes were a bit wet. He turned his look away again. So they sat there few minutes and stilled.

"What are you going to do?" Karen finally asked and broke the silence.

"I'm not running away like some craven. I asked Peyton to marry me and she said yes. I'm going to be the best father to my child no matter what."

"Are you sure if that's what you really want? Marriage is a big thing. It's for a life time."

"I thought about it a lot before I decided."

"Then I have to approve it. I hope you'll do the right thing."

Karen moved herself closer to Lucas and hugged him.

"Thanks for supporting me, ma." Lucas said and put his head to Karen's shoulder. She didn't answer, only held him close.

After all that, Lucas wanted to talk to Brooke about what happened in his house. At that moment Brooke was his only friend who he could rely on. When he was almost in the front of Brooke's house, he saw a red car that stopped in the front of the house. A girl and a guy stepped out of the car. Those were Brooke and Felix. Lucas stood close enough to see them but he couldn't hear them.

"Can I send you to the door?" Felix asked and offered his hand to Brooke. She only pulled his hand back and shook head.

"No way am I going to invite you in and sleep with you." Brooke said. For her that was the only thing that guy would want.

"Heh. I didn't except you to do it. I just want to send you home." Felix smiled and took Brooke's hand.

"Weird. But you don't have to. I'm a big girl, I can go by myself."

"You are so sweet." Felix said and stepped little closer to Brooke. Now he was standing right in front of her and looked in her eyes. "I'm glad that I met you."

"Yeah. Me too." Brooke answered and looked deep to Felix's eyes. Only a second later Felix put his lips to hers and kissed her. And she kissed him back. Lucas was just standing further away and looked at them. He wanted to be there with Brooke instead of Felix more than anything in the world. Right now he wanted to tell the whole world how much he loves Brooke Davis and that she's the one he wants to be with. But he couldn't. There was nothing to do. So he just walked away. After Felix left, Brooke was like flying when she went inside. She was happy. She felt like she could breathe again, maybe even let somebody to her heart and love him.

_... let me tell you what you are  
You're amazing, I'm attracted  
But I'm terribly distracted  
And I'm trying to be verbal  
And I'm back into this circle  
Because I just found someone special  
And that's really something special  
If you knew me  
Nice to meet you anyway ..._

Preview:

Will Haley find a way how to make Lucas understand?

Will Felix and Brooke start a serious relationship?

Someone's life is in danger!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lyrics at the end of the chapter are from Gavin DeGraw's song Nice To Meet You Anyway.


	7. If I fell in love with you

**If I fell in love with you**

In the morning Brooke wanted to go by Lucas house to go to school together but she was disappointed to see Peyton arriving there first. And again she had to walk alone to the school. At school she sat alone at outside. She was tired of girls from the cheer squad and she didn't have anyone else to hang out with.

„Great. Brooke Davis sitting here all alone. Being a loner doesn't suit me at all. I have to find Felix. He will be with me when anyone else doesn't." She said to herself and stood up. She was looking around in the parking lot to find Felix's car but she didn't find it so she decided to call him.

"Hi Felix. Where are you?" Brooke asked when Felix finally answered.

"_I'm not coming to school today."_

"Any really shocking reason or just a usual reason?" Brooke asked and twirled her hair around a finger.

"_Nothing important. So can I see you after school?"_

"Call me, okay?"

"_Okay."_

Brooke ended the phone call and put away her phone. At the same time Peyton and Lucas came towards her and Peyton almost ran into her.

"Look where you step, girlfriend. Oh, maybe you can step on a diary full of secrets and just opened for you so you can read it." Brooke scoffed.

"Brooke …" Lucas tried to say something to make them make up. But Brooke wasn't interested.

"You shut up!" Brooke yelled to him and walked away. Soon she ran into Haley.

"Stay out of my way, tutor girl." She threw at Haley and walked away. Haley walked to Peyton and Lucas.

"Someone seems to be in really bad mood today." She said and waited for Lucas to answer.

"Yeah. We had a fight yesterday, so she gets mad every time she sees me." Peyton answered instead of Lucas. He was totally out of conversation. His look was routed to other direction to avoid Haley's peek.

"I get it. See you later at the class." Haley said when he noticed Lucas ignoring her and she left quickly.

"You should forgive her, Lucas. I mean she's your best friend and I know what it feels like to lose a best friend because of some stupid mistake. I don't want you to feel it. She's a good girl and I'm sure she didn't want it to happen." Peyton tried to make Lucas change his mind. "Lucas. Are you listening to me?" She asked after she looked at Lucas and saw him looking away.

"Yeah. I just don't want to talk about it, alright?"

After school, cheerleaders and the basketball team had training in the gym. Brooke, Bevin and Rachel were first cheerleaders who arrived. When they walked to the gym, there were some guys practicing. Brooke looked for Lucas. He wasn't there. But soon he arrived, alone. Brooke walked towards him.

"Hey Lucas. Where did you leave your nosy wife?" Brooke asked when she stood in front of Lucas. He laughed a bit.

"She's at home and she's coming here soon. And she isn't my wife yet." Lucas answered. He was still laughing at Brooke.

"Oh, I thought she's spying on you too or something. Anyway I wanted to see you because you are my friend, a really good friend actually, and as long as I don't have any other real friend, I really need you." Brooke said so quickly that she couldn't catch a breath and was panting after speaking.

"You can have your best friend back if you only want to."

"Stop it or I have to start hating you." Brooke rolled eyes and looked at Lucas with annoyed face.

"Okay, okay. But think about it. It's pretty obvious that you miss her. I can see that."

"I hate when people can see within of me." Brooke whined. "I'll go now. Your bitch came. Sorry, wife. Or girlfriend. Whatever, the point is that I'm going to leave now. See you later or some other time." She added when she saw Peyton coming to the gym and ran away from Lucas without hearing his answer.

"It's a beautiful night, isn't it?" Lucas said to Haley when he found her sitting on the roof top after the practice.

"Yeah." Haley answered shortly, still looking at the sky at the same time. Lucas sat down next to her and Haley looked at him.

"Look Haley." He started. "I didn't mean to be so hard on you but I wasn't ready to deal with Nathan yet so that pretty much freaked me out. I'm still scared of what life brings to me next. I'm seventeen years old, I'm going to get married and my girlfriend is having a baby. That's not how I imagined my life to be." He spoke with tears in his eyes and he grabbed Haley's hand.

"You mean, you didn't imagine yourself getting married with a girl you don't love?" Haley asked and looked deep into Lucas' eyes.

"Ah, don't start again." Lucas answered and turned his look away. "I love Peyton; I'm just madly in love with Brooke. But that doesn't matter right now."

"It does matter, Luke. This will haunt you until the end of your life. You can't tell your heart and you can't change or deny feelings. Those feelings will always be there and it will get harder every day - seeing her loving someone else and even having kids and family. It will always be there."

"I know. I know. But I don't want my child to go through the same stuff I did. It's hard being without your real dad and I could never ever stand anger that comes from that child. It's the worst thing."

"Okay. You make your decisions and I hope you will be happy. And I hope we'll never fight again. It was hard being without you." Haley said and squeezed Lucas' hand.

"Yea. I'm really sorry, Hales. But I hope you understand. I know you do."

"Of course I do. I'm glad we talked things through." Haley smiled to Lucas.

"Me too." He answered and smiled back to Haley. He hugged Haley.

Brooke was lying on her bed and watching TV when her cell phone rang.

"Ugh. Who's calling me right now in the middle of such a good movie?" She whined while searching her phone. "Hello. If you are someone unimportant person for me, then just hang up because I don't have time to chat with you." She finally answered the phone.

"_It's just me, Felix. You still remember me?"_

"Aww, sorry. I was just watching TV and there's a really good movie, you know." Brooke spoke and stood up from the bed.

"_I'm actually in front of your house, without my car. So we could go for a walk or something. What do you think?"_

"Umm. Okay. I'll be there in a minute." Brooke was watching out from the window to be sure that Felix is really there. Once she was sure about that, she put away the phone, quickly changed her clothes and ran out. She went straight to Felix. He wrapped his arms around her and they kissed. Then Felix took Brooke's hand and dragged her with. They walked along the street, holding hands and laughing.

"You know, you're a really great guy." Brooke suddenly said. "It's so hard to find someone like you. I mean, I have had lots of guys but they all were good in bed or something. They never were good or caring to me. It was always about sex. Now it's good to have something else in my life but it still feels strange. But I guess you'll make it feel even better."

"And I really like you, Brooke, because you're the most amazing girl I have ever seen. I'm happy with you. By the way, I wanted to ask if I can call you my girl." Felix spoke and stopped. He looked into Brooke's eyes and waited for her answer.

"Yeah, boyfriend." Brooke answered and grinned. Felix kissed her and this time more passionately than ever before. They were like floating in the air, no one else around.

After making up with Lucas, Haley walked to home alone. Street was so quiet that she could hear herself breathing. Suddenly in the darker place three guys jumped out behind the corner and grabbed Haley. Two guys held Haley and one was looking through her pockets. Haley screamed as much as she could and soon someone came from behind. It was Nathan. He pulled guys off of Haley and she ran aloof. But those guys didn't let Nathan go. They held him and hit him. Soon he collapsed but they didn't stop. They punched him to stomach many times again and then run away. Haley, who had looked from further, now walked to Nathan and crouched next to him.

"Hey! Can you hear me?" She tried to contact Nathan and shook him. "I have to call to ambulance." She said and looked for her phone. She couldn't find it – those guys took it.

"Somebody help me!" She screamed and fell to her knees next to Nathan.

_... if I fell in love with you  
would you promise to be true  
And help me understand  
'Cause I've been in love before  
And I've found that love is more  
That just holding hands ..._

Preview:

How is Lucas and Peyton's relationship holding on?

Brooke will get hurt again. How this time?

Haley finds herself in the middle of strange feelings. That threatens to tear her apart from Lucas again. Will they let this to happen?

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Lyrics at the end of the chapter are from Maroon 5's song If I Fell In Love With You.


	8. Broken promises

**Broken Promises**

Haley knelt next to Nathan and still tried to wake him up. Soon she realized he won't wake up and she ran to Karen's cafe, hoping that someone is still there. She knocked on the door and soon Karen opened it. Haley saw Lucas sitting beside the counter.

„Haley, what happened? You look frightened." Karen said when she noticed Haley panting and shaking.

„Please call the ambulance. There has been accident with Nathan. Hurry up please. He's unconscious." Haley said, trying to catch a breath at the same time.

„What? What happened to him?" Lucas asked after he had stood up and Karen went to call. Haley stepped in and closed the door.

„There were three guys. They ... they attacked me and ... Nathan was there. He saved me from those guys but they beat him up." Haley explained.

„Ambulance is on the way." Karen said when she walked back to Lucas and Haley. „Let's go there. Show us where he is." She opened the door and walked out. Lucas and Haley followed her and they walked down the street to Nathan. They heard ambulance's siren from further.

At the hospital; Haley, Lucas, Peyton and Karen were waiting for news about Nathan. Haley was walking in circles, Karen was talking to Deb on the phone, and Lucas and Peyton were cuddling on the chairs. Soon Brooke arrived with Felix. She wasn't very happy when she saw Lucas and Peyton happily together but she didn't walk away because she had Felix now and Lucas was just a fling from past for her. But Lucas didn't seem to be happy either when he saw Brooke in Felix's embrace.

"Let's not go there, okay?" Brooke said and pulled Felix to turn him around. "My nosy ex best friend is there. I don't really want to be with her. You understand me, right?"

"Of course." Felix answered and gave Brooke a peck. Then Brooke noticed Lucas walking away from Peyton and others.

"I need to talk to Lucas for a second. Wait here." Brooke said then and Felix let her go. When Brooke was gone, Peyton walked towards Felix.

"So. You are Brooke's new conquest. Interesting." She said and checked Felix over with her eyes while walking around him.

"You can call me her conquest but I'm actually her boyfriend." Felix answered and sent a mean look to Peyton.

"Ah, whatever. I hope you'll be happy." Peyton laughed loudly but stopped to continue. "Happy with Brooke? Only in your dreams." She said, grinned evilly and walked back to others. Soon Lucas and Brooke walked back too. Brooke went to Felix.

"You had a nice talk with Peyton?" She asked sarcastically and looked Felix to eyes.

"Yeah. She's a mean girl, really." Felix answered and smiled a bit. "But actually I have to go now. I hope you're not mad."

"No. It's okay. I'll call you later." Brooke said and kissed Felix passionately. Even Lucas, who was watching them from further, could notice the passion between them and that hurt him so badly. Then Felix walked away and Brooke waved to him. After he had left, Brooke sat down in the other side of the corridor to ignore Lucas and Peyton.

After few hours of waiting doctor finally came with some news.

"Is Nathan Scott's parents here?" The doctor asked. Deb and Dan stood up and walked towards the doctor but others followed them.

"He had serious inner bleeding and some of his organs were hurt badly. We had to do an operation and it went well. He should wake up soon and he'll be okay." Doctor explained and left after that. Now everyone could breath easily again.

Brooke soon left the hospital and walked home by herself. She could have asked Lucas to drop her off but she knew that he actually wants to be there for his brother. And she needed time to think anyway. At home she called Felix to tell him that Nathan is okay. She dialed the number and waited for him to answer. But he didn't answer.

"_Hi. How can I help you?"_ A female voice asked from the phone.

"Umm. Can I talk to Felix?" Brooke was confused.

"_He's on shower right now. Can I tell him something?"_

"No. But who are you? His sister? Or mother?"

"_What?" _She laughed a bit and then continued. _"I'm his girlfriend. Who are you anyway?"_

"Never mind." Brooke hang up the phone. She was shocked. She still couldn't believe what that girl on the phone just said. Tears slowly rolled down from her cheeks. She needed space. She needed air to breathe. She just ran out from her house and walked nowhere.

At the hospital, Haley sat beside Nathan's bed after he had waked up.

"I just wanted to say thanks for saving me but I think I'll go now. I'm obviously not the person you would talk to." She spoke and stood up from the chair but Nathan stopped her.

"No, don't go. I have nothing against you, I can talk to you. You just don't know me at all. I'm glad I was able to save you. I've never done anything good to anyone. You showed me that I still have a heart. And I want you to know that I'm not judge over people by their popularity." Nathan told and Haley was just standing there and listening to him. She found something so amazing about him. Then suddenly Lucas stepped in.

"Hey, Hales. Are you coming home with me?" He asked and ignored Nathan's peek.

"Yeah. Sure." Haley answered and walked away with Lucas. At the end of the corridor Lucas stopped.

"Why were you there for so long?" He asked and had a concerned look on his face.

"He just talked to me. Explained some things. And I thanked him. That's all." Haley explained and tried not to show her emotions.

"Are you sure? You look a bit weird, like you're miles away from here. And you're shaking a bit."

"I'm just thinking about what he said to me. He seems to be a nice guy, although he doesn't show it."

"I can't believe it. Did you just say that? What happened to you? You have always hated him for being such an ass."

"I just talked to him. Can we go now?" Haley said with annoyed face and started walking again. Lucas only shook his head and followed her. It was obvious to him that Haley has some kind of feelings for Nathan. Only question is how strong these feelings are.

Later at night, when Lucas sat in his room behind the computer and chatted with Peyton, there was knocking behind the door. Lucas stood up and opened it. He was very surprised to see teary Brooke standing on his door. Brooke only put her hands around his neck and cuddled him.

"I know it's late but I need to talk and I have no one else to talk to." She whispered and sobbed to Lucas' ear.

"It's okay." Lucas answered and held her strongly close to his body. That was a moment he wanted to last forever. "What happened?" He asked and let Brooke out of his embrace. She walked out from the door and sat down to stairs, Lucas followed her.

"I feel so stupid. When I came home from the hospital I called Felix and some girl answered his phone. She said she's his girlfriend. I felt like he just crushed my heart." Brooke started explaining and sobbed from time to time.

"Oh man." He said and his eyes got a bit wet. That was really painful for him to see Brooke crying and hurting. "I wish I could do or say something that would make it better."

"You don't have to. I can fight with my pain by myself." She looked at Lucas. "I mean I made a mistake – I trusted him too easily. I was ready to let him to my heart. Actually that was the second time in my life and both times I got hurt." She stopped and looked away. She wasn't only sobbing a bit, now she was crying out loudly. She waited for Lucas to say something but he stilled.

"Now I know that love hurts really badly and I won't fall so easily again. I'll wait until the one comes to my life. If he ever comes at all." She continued and looked at Lucas. She could see tears fulfilling his eyes.

"Don't say that. This guy is out there waiting for you." Lucas said to Brooke with very sad voice and stopped for a moment but then continued. "Maybe he is even closer than you think."

They just stared at each other. Brooke even bit her lip. She wanted to kiss him but she couldn't. So she broke the silence to evade an embarrassing moment between them.

"I have to go home now. Although I don't want to go there because my parents are away and I hate being alone right now." She sighed. ""But I'll be okay. Can you send me then?" She stood up and asked from Lucas. But Lucas didn't stand up.

"You can stay here." He offered and Brooke seemed to be shocked and surprised.

"Oh, no. I can't. Where would I sleep?" She started worrying.

"In my bed next to me."

"Are you serious? What would Peyton think about that? And your mom! They'd freak out!"

"Peyton knows we are good friends and my mom too. I'll tell her. So are you staying?"

"If you are so sure about that then okay. I'll stay. Thanks. You are a good friend." Brooke said and smiled to Lucas.

"No problem." He answered and smiled back.

In the morning Peyton came over to see Lucas. She knocked on front door and Karen opened it.

"Hi. Is Lucas at home?" She asked from Karen.

"Yeah. He's in his room." Karen answered and let her in. She walked into Lucas' room and wasn't very happy about what she saw – Lucas was sitting on the bedside and putting his clothes on while Brooke was sleeping on the other side of the bed. Lucas looked at Peyton.

"Okay. Whatever." She said and walked away. Lucas ran after her and stopped her before leaving the house.

"I can explain." He said.

"Yeah. You have explanation for everything. But I don't want to hear it." Peyton shouted at him and walked out from the door. Lucas followed her and caught her before sitting to her car.

"We need to talk about this. Walking away isn't a good way to resolve problems." He told Peyton and held her hand so she couldn't leave.

"Okay. Let's talk about it. I found you in bed with another girl while I'm carrying your baby. How sweet is that?" Peyton shouted at Lucas face. She was mad but she didn't seem to be sad.

"Peyt, hear me out. Yesterday Brooke found out that Felix already has a girlfriend and she was really crushed. So she came to talk to me and I asked her to stay because her parents are away and she didn't want to be alone. We just slept in same bed, that doesn't mean I slept with her." Lucas explained but Peyton didn't care what he had to say. "I love you, Peyton. I would never leave you. Brooke needs a friend and I'm there for her. That's all. Now come here." He stretched out his arms and pulled Peyton close to him. After a while he kissed her.

Later when Peyton was gone, Lucas went to the house to talk with Brooke but he didn't find her.

"Where's Brooke?" Lucas asked from his mom when she was making coffee in the kitchen.

"She left a while ago. She saw you two arguing outside and she was gone just like that."

"Damn." He whispered only and walked out straightly to Brooke's house. He knocked and soon Brooke came to the door. Lucas wanted to start talking but when he opened his mouth Brooke stopped him.

"I have to say that we should stop meeting. I mean we are friends and all that stuff but I'm only causing trouble between you and Peyton. Although I really don't like her I don't want you two to suffer because of me. Just spend more time with Peyton but don't be a complete stranger to me. Don't say anything, just accept with that." Brooke spoke and Lucas listened to her very carefully. When she stopped talking he just nodded to her.

"Okay. Bye then."

"Bye." Lucas said and Brooke closed the door in front of him. Brooke just asked him to stay away from her and he didn't say a word. He couldn't believe how stupid he was.

_... what happened to the I love you's?  
The hugs and kisses and the __rendezvous?  
What happened to me and you?  
You said you'd never change.  
What happened baby talk to me  
You used to be sugar sweet just like candy  
Now you're breaking my heart_

_With all your broken promises ..._

Preview:

Are Haley's feelings for Nathan just passing or true? Who will Lucas react?

Brooke is the only one of the cheerleaders who doesn't have a boyfriend. So girls set a date for her. But with who?

A hostage drama in Tree Hill hospital! Who's in the hospital at the wrong time? Will they get out of there?

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Lyrics at the end of the chapter are from Mandy Moore's song Broken Promises.


	9. Cure my tragedy

**Cure my tragedy**

Brooke was chatting and giggling with Bevin and Rachel near lockers when Peyton walked up to them. Bevin and Rachel left as Brooke sent them away with a nod.

"What do you want, betrayer?" Brooke turned around and asked from Peyton.

"I just wanted to ask about you and Lucas. Did you sleep with him?" Peyton asked with not very friendly voice. That question really surprised Brooke.

"Of course not. Who you think I am? Some brainless slut or something?"

"Oh, that's what you've always been!" Peyton said with chaffing voice and that irritated Brooke.

"I think I should have slept with him after all." Brooke said and turned around to walk away but when she saw Lucas right behind her, she stopped. "Please chaste your wifey!" She said to him then passed him and walked away.

"What was that about?" Lucas asked from Peyton when he approached to her.

"You know we are fighting and we don't trust each other." Peyton explained and looked down.

"It's your business if you two don't trust each other but you have to trust me. I told you nothing happened between us. How do you think our marriage will work if we don't trust each other, huh?" Lucas spoke and raised his eyebrow. He tried to catch Peyton's eye. When Peyton finally raised her head, their eyes met. Lucas pulled her to his embrace and gave her kiss to forehead.

At the lunch time almost all the girls from the cheer squad sat beside a table when Brooke walked to them. Only Peyton wasn't there.

"Hi girls!" Brooke called out when she reached the table and sat down with others.

"Hi Brooke." Bevin answered to her and all the girls smiled. "We were thinking here how to make you feel better. We know you are lonely and you don't have boyfriend to date with. So we wanted to cheer you up, like the cheerleaders do. We set up a date for you." She continued and eyes of all girls gathered to Brooke.

"Oh, I'm not that desperate." Brooke answered and tried not to show how shocked she was.

"That's okay, Brooke." Rachel continued. "You are a new girl and we really like you. We want to see you smiling like you smiled when we first saw you."

"But who's my date then?"

"Nathan Scott!" Bevin hollered almost over the school yard.

"Nathan? But he's in hospital!" Brooke was really shocked.

"He said he will be out tomorrow and there's a game tomorrow too. That means we can have a party again! And you can come there together." Rachel explained.

"So you just go to the hospital today and talk to him about it. We already did, now it's your time." Bevin said and grinned.

"Thanks girls. You are so sweet." Brooke said and they did a group hug.

At the same time Peyton walked out from the school and wanted to join other girls but Haley approached to her and stopped her.

"Hey, Peyton!" She hollered and when Peyton stopped she walked to her. "I know we aren't friends or anything but I need to ask you something. It's about Nathan."

"Oh, you like him. I see. Ask your question."

"No, I don't know. I just want to know what he's like. Seems like he's fooling me with that 'I'm actually a really good guy' thing. I'm messed up."

"You want to know the truth? He's a jerk! But people can change, Haley. So who knows?"

Haley didn't answer to it, she just smiled and then Lucas walked towards them. He hugged Haley, gave Peyton a peck and put his arm around her.

"So you guys are friends and I didn't even know it." Lucas said when they walked on but either Peyton or Haley couldn't answer. They weren't friends but they couldn't tell to Lucas about Haley asking about Nathan.

"Yeah. I've been to tutoring centre few times and now when we are a couple I thought it's cool to get along with your best friend." Peyton finally answered and Haley smiled to her gratefully.

"You two are a big part of my life. You are my girls." Lucas said and put his other arm around Haley and they all laughed. When they passed the table where were cheerleaders, Brooke looked at them and she felt sad but none of them seemed to notice it so she turned back to the girls.

Later Brooke went to the hospital as girls asked her to do. When she found Nathan's room, she met Dan first because Deb was with Nathan at that moment.

"Well, Well. Brooke Davis." Dan said when he saw Brooke. "How's your daddy?" He asked and grinned evilly.

"Hi Mr. Scott. He's fine." Brooke answered and faked a smile. She hoped that Dan won't talk to her anymore but she was wrong.

"I hope he has enough money to buy you those expensive things you want." Dan said and still had that evil grin on his face. But Brooke didn't have to answer to this because Deb went out from Nathan's room at this moment. She obviously knew what Dan did.

"Let's go, Dan." She said, having a furious face and they both left so Brooke went to Nathan.

"Hi Nathan." She said when she stepped in and walked to Nathan. "Have you heard that girls set up a date for us?" She was standing next to Nathan's bed.

"Yeah. Rachel and Bevin were here yesterday." He answered.

"So. Are you waiting for tomorrow?" Brooke asked with very flirty voice and sat down to the bedside.

"Of course. This will be fun." Nathan answered with same flirty voice.

"Okay then. See you tomorrow." Brooke gave Nathan a wink and kissed him to cheek. Then stood up and left. Meanwhile Haley had arrived to the hospital and she saw Brooke kissing Nathan so she sat down somewhere a bit away from Nathan's room. At the same time Brooke tried to leave the hospital but on her way out of the corridor some strange man grabbed her and tweaked her hands behind her back. She tried to scream but that man taped her mouth. He dragged her to the middle of the corridor and shot a warning shot, then he put gun to Brooke head. Everyone around got down to the floor. Haley ran there when she heard the shot. The man noticed her and grabbed her too. He taped Brooke and Haley together and put them down to the middle of people.

"I need some medications and all your money you have here." Man shouted standing next to Brooke and Haley. "Or these two will die."

"We can't give you medications and we don't have money here." Some of the doctors answered.

"Then call someone who has money. Hurry up now!" Man shouted even more louder than before and went to the doctor to check if he calls.

Peyton and Lucas were snuggling on the sofa and watching TV when there was extraordinary news on TV. Lucas turned up the sound a bit to hear it better. They were both shocked to learn that there's a hostage crisis in Tree Hill hospital where Nathan is. And they were even more shocked when they saw security camera video – Brooke and Haley were tied down and the strange man was pointing gun on them. Lucas jumped off of the sofa and was almost leaving when Peyton stopped him.

"Where are you going?" She asked and held Lucas back.

"I got to go there. Haley and Brooke are there. I need to save them." Lucas answered and tried to bail out of Peyton's grip.

"There are police and other people who have corresponding training for this kind of situations. You only put your life in danger like that." Peyton tried to calm Lucas down.

"No! My best friend is there. And Brooke … she's your best friend! So I got to go there."

"Then I'm coming with you." Peyton said and took her jacket.

"Peyton." Lucas tried to stop her.

"No. I'm coming. Let's go now." She said and they both ran out of the house. They sat to the car and soon they arrived to the hospital. They saw crowd around the hospital and police officers who tried to splay them. Lucas grabbed Peyton's hand and they ran through the crowd until they came down to hospital's front door. They tried to go in but a police officer stopped them.

"You can't go there, young man." The police officer said and pulled them back.

"I have to! My best friends and brother are there. I need to!" Lucas yelled at the police officer. Then they heard two gun shots from inside and all people around started screaming. Peyton and Lucas only looked nowhere with empty looks.

"NOOOOO!" Peyton finally screamed and started crying hysterically. She collapsed on Lucas and they both fell down to the ground. The entire crowd was looking at them as they were crying on the ground.

_... Won't you cure my tragedy  
Don't take her smile away from me  
She's broken and I'm far away  
Won't you cure my tragedy  
Then I hope that you can hear me scream ..._

Preview:

When Haley and Brooke get out of the hospital are they alright?

A new friendship is about to begin!

A post-game party is full of surprises! Who ends up with who?

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Lyrics at the end of the episode are from Cold's song Cure My Tragedy.


	10. Just Friends

**Just friends**

Peyton and Lucas sat down on the ground and cried. But suddenly some guy came out from the hospital door.

„Nobody's hurt inside! That guy shot police officers but they got him now. They are coming out so please clean the way." He hollered and people started straggling. Peyton and Lucas stood up and ran to the guy.

„Where are Brooke and Haley? Girls who were tied down?" Lucas asked from him.

„They will come out in a few seconds. Are you cousins?"

„Just best friends."

The guy nodded and smiled to them. Soon Haley ran out from the hospital and jumped to Lucas. Then Peyton hugged her.

„Where's Brooke?" Lucas asked and Peyton looked around hysterically. Right after that they saw her walking out calmly. Lucas, Haley and Peyton ran to her.

"Are you okay?" Lucas asked and hugged her.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She answered and Lucas let her go so she could hug Peyton. And she did that against all expectations.

"I was so worried about you." Peyton whispered to Brooke's ear and she pulled Peyton even closer to her and hugged her stronger.

"Let's just leave that place." Haley said and they all headed to Lucas' car.

"Maybe we all would go to my place, just sit and talk. What do you think guys?" Lucas offered while they were driving.

"Yeah. That would be great." Haley answered and Peyton nodded with a smile. Only Brooke seemed to not like this idea.

"Can you drive me home? I'm tired and I just want to get some sleep." She said dully. So Lucas put Haley and Peyton down in front of his house and drive on with Brooke. Either of them didn't say a word until Lucas stopped the car in front of Brooke's house.

"Are you sure you can handle it? I mean seems like your dad's not at home." Lucas said and looked at Brooke but she still looked away.

"You never know. My dad doesn't have lights on when he's having sex. Usually at least." She said and finally looked at Lucas with a very foxy look. Lucas laughed a bit.

"Anyway, thank you for bringing me home. And thank you for being there." She said and gave Lucas a kiss to cheek. Then she stepped out from the car and walked to house without looking back. Lucas looked at her few minutes and then drove off.

Next day at school all the news about hostage drama in hospital had spread out and everyone around Haley and Brooke were whispering and acting weirdly. Once they saw each other on the hallway, Brooke wanted to talk to Haley about what happened. So she ran to her to stop her.

"Hey tutor girl!" She shouted at Haley and she turned around. Brooke walked up to her.

"It's Haley."

"Yeah. Haley. How did you sleep last night?" She asked quietly because everyone around tried to hear what they were talking about.

"Very bad." Haley answered.

"Oh, so I'm not the only one." Brooke said and sighed with ease.

"Why are you talking to me anyway? I'm the tutor girl, remember?" Haley said and had a very confused look on her face.

"I just needed to talk to someone about this. You are the best for it because you were there. And the fact that I'm popular doesn't mean I can't be friends with you." Brooke explained and smiled to Haley. "So see you at the post-game party, right? I hope you're coming but I have to go now. Bye!" Brooke said and walked away quickly.

At the night everybody gathered to the gym to watch another Ravens' game. Brooke came there with Bevin. On their way to locker room they met Nathan.

"Hi Nathan." Bevin said to him but Brooke only winked.

"Hi Bevin. Hi Brooke." He answered.

"Go ahead Bevin. I'll follow you later." Brooke said and sent Bevin away so she could talk to Nathan.

"So, Nate. Tonight. Don't you forget that. Wait up for me after the game. We're going to have some fun." She said to Nathan and slipped her finger over Nathan's chest; then over her lips and then walked away. When she reached to the locker room she saw Peyton standing in front of the cheerleaders.

"Ah, there she is. Come here Brooke." She said and Brooke sat down to other girls.

"You know I'm your captain. But I have been thinking and I think that I'm not the best person for that. We have a better one here. So welcome your new captain, Brooke Davis!" She announced and smiled to Brooke. But she seemed to be too surprised and gave Peyton an evil look. She was pretty sure there was some trick behind that. Girls around her exulted and Peyton were still smiling to Brooke. Then all girls went to the court but Brooke stopped Peyton from going.

"What was that about?" She asked angrily under her breath.

"Look, that we are fighting doesn't make me a better cheerleader than you. So take it or leave it. I can find someone other too."

"Of course I'll take it." Brooke said and turned around. She ran to the court, followed by Peyton.

After the game Brooke and Nathan met outside of the gym. Then Brooke noticed Peyton, Lucas and Haley coming out. Peyton and Lucas went away together but Haley went another way alone.

"Tutor girl!" Brooke yelled to her and everyone around looked at Brooke. "What are you looking at? Mind your own business." She said arrogantly to a girl next to her.

"Hey tiger." Haley answered when she walked to Brooke and Nathan. "Hi Nathan." She added.

"Hi Haley." Nathan answered and smiled to her.

"So, tutor. Are you coming to the party?" Brooke asked and winked to her.

"Actually I wasn't coming. Lucas is with Peyton and I don't want to be between them all the time." Haley explained and tried to wiggle herself out.

"Oh, Peyton and Lucas, team broody. That's a whole another story. But you can always come with us. Right, Nate?" Brooke spoke and looked at Nathan.

"Yeah. Of course." He said and nodded.

"Okay. I'll come with you." Haley finally gave in and they all sit to Nathan's car. When they arrived to the party, house was already full of people. They stepped in and looked around.

"I'm going to my mates right now. It wasn't easy to watch them playing without playing with them. So I just want to hang out with them a bit. I'll find you later." Nathan said then and walked away from Haley and Brooke.

"Okay, tutor girl. Let's have some fun." Brooke said, grabbed Haley's hand and bear her off.

"My name is Haley. Please don't call me tutor girl or whatever." Haley said to Brooke when they were in the middle of the crowd.

"Okay, okay. Just don't hit me to face. I love my face." Brooke answered and laughed. She almost screamed because someone turned music up loud and everybody started dancing. "C'mon! Dance with me!" She hollered and made Haley dance.

"Is that Haley there?" Peyton asked when they sat on a sofa and drank. They didn't even notice her before and now she was there and everyone was looking at her and Brooke. Now Lucas looked at her too and he was amazed. Two amazing girls are laughing and having fun. That made Lucas happy too.

"Looks like Brooke have an amazing affect on others." He said and smiled sweetly.

"Yeah. She's a class of her own." Peyton answered to her and they both smiled.

After a while Lucas took Peyton home because of a head ache and came back. He found Jake and they took drinks and hang out together. Further away Nathan and Brooke were making out so Haley left them alone and joined Lucas and Jake.

"So you and Barbie are friends now? I thought you are not the Barbie type." Lucas picked on Haley. She punched his forearm for that. "Okay, okay. I was just joking."

"Brooke is worried about that hostage stuff. She had a nightmare. She just needed someone to talk to and later she needed someone to party with. I like to help people, sorry, Barbies." Haley explained and now even Jake laughed at them. But soon the fun was over when Nathan came to them with Brooke trying to hold him back.

"Hi. How is it going, daddy? Already buying diapers?" Nathan asked derisively and Lucas stood up. "I guess it's going to be one ugly baby." He added and now Lucas got mad. He grabbed Nathan by his shirt.

"You guys are so … ugh." Brooke said after that. That fight obviously irritated her and she just ran out. Lucas let go of Nathan's shirt, pushed him away and followed Brooke.

"You are such an ass!" Haley said to Nathan and walked away too.

Brooke was staring an empty place alone in the back yard when Lucas walked towards her.

"I'm sorry, Brooke." He said when he stopped behind Brooke.

"You here again." Brooke answered to him without turning around. "I thought we already talked about this." She added and turned around.

"You can talk to me. Haley already told me that you had a nightmare and that you need a friend so you can talk to someone. I'm here for you. You can lean on me." Lucas said and stepped closer to Brooke.

"Yea, so your girlfriend can this time think that we got married in secret." Brooke threw at Lucas face and walked away from him.

"Brooke!" Lucas hollered. Brooke stopped and turned around. "She understands. I promise to you." He said. Brooke walked back to him.

"You know what? She doesn't! If she does, she would never ever read my diary and right now she would be next to me so I could lean on her. But she isn't. She betrayed me and left me dealing with all that crap alone." She spoke and slowly started crying. Lucas wrapped his arms around her once again and pulled her close.

"I need friends, Luke. Real friends." Brooke whispered and Lucas fondled her hair.

Haley has sat alone on the stairway for a long time when someone sat down next to her. That someone was Nathan Scott.

"Why are you sitting here?" Haley asked from him and stood up.

"Don't go, Haley." He said and Haley stayed right where she was. "It's really hard for me to fit to the world. I don't know where I belong. Everybody around expects more and more from me. They won't let me be who I really am. It's good to talk with you. I hope that one day you'll see the real me. Real Nathan Scott."

Haley didn't say a word but just stayed there and stared at Nathan. There were no words to say at all.

_... I saw you there last night  
Standing in the dark  
You were acting so in love  
With your hand upon his heart  
But you were just friends  
At least that's what you said ..._

Preview:

Brooke won't get over the hostage thing easily. She will get help from her friends.

Is Brooke ready to talk things through with Peyton?

Lucas is having second thoughts about marrying. Will he come over it or will he be just like his father?

It's end of a school year and start of a summer!

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Lyrics at the end of the chapter are from Gavin DeGraw's song Just Friends.


	11. Dreams don't die

**Dreams don't die**

"Hey, Haley!" Brooke shouted out loudly when she was bouncing happily around in the school.

"Wow. Did you just say Haley?" She asked and frowned.

"Yeah. So?"

"Good thing, Brooke."

Lucas was approaching them from behind. When he was right behind them, he tickled Haley. She screamed like crazy and Brooke laughed at her.

"Don't you ever do that again!" Haley said and panted because of laughing so hardly.

"Okay. Peace. How is your last day at school going?" He asked and looked at both Brooke and Haley.

"If I count out hard waking at the morning and almost being late for school then it's pretty fine. And you might yet not know that I'm the new captain of cheerleaders. How wonderful is that?" Brooke answered and put her shoulder up in a half-shrug. She had a wide smile on her face.

"Brooke, that's great! Congratulations!" Haley said and smiled to her.

"Yeah. Good for you. But Peyton was the captain. How did you …?" Lucas added.

"She told me that I'm better for this. That was her decision." Brooke explained.

"Where is she anyway?" Haley asked then and looked around.

"She's at home. Her dad came home and she wanted to be with him today." Lucas spoke and noticed Brooke's foxy look. "What's wrong with you?" He asked from her.

"Nothing. Larry is just my hot dad fantasy, that's all. Too bad I'm not friends with Peyton anymore." She said and she turned a bit sad.

"Hot dad fantasy?" Haley and Lucas asked in the same time together.

"Never mind. Haley didn't answer to your question. So Haley how is your day going?" Brooke quickly changed the subject. Haley and Lucas both laughed at Brooke and she just grinned.

"My day is going just fine." Haley finally answered. "Actually I'm pretty surprised that I can't wait for school to end so I can spend whole summer with Lucas."

"Yeah. We have been together every summer." Lucas added.

"I used to spend my summers with Maria, my best friend in L.A. until last summer when she moved away and now I have moved away too. But I'm going back to L.A. for summer and then we'll see if mom lets me come back for senior year." Brooke talked and got carried away for a second but then like woke up again.

"I hope you are coming back." Haley said and smiled to her.

"Me too. I mean you like in Tree Hill, don't you?" Lucas spoke and what he said made Brooke sad.

"Yeah." Brooke answered and got carried away once again. "It's our last class, right? I got something to do. I guess no one will be mad at me if I'll skip that. So I'm going. Bye." Then she added and didn't even give chance to Haley or Lucas to say something. She just walked away from them.

Brooke went to Peyton's place. The door was opened so she stepped in and walked straight to Peyton's room. Peyton was sitting behind her desk and she was drawing something.

"Hi Peyton." Brooke said and Peyton turned herself around. "I heard your dad is home."

"Yeah. He went to the mall." Peyton answered to her.

"How long is he at home?" Brooke asked. She couldn't find a way to talk to Peyton like they used to do before.

"A few days. He's going back to work."

"I was wondering if you have any plans for summer. If you don't then you could come with me to L.A. If you want to of course." Brooke offered while still standing on the door. Peyton looked very shocked.

"Since when are you talking to me at all?" Peyton asked with confusion.

"Look, Peyton." Brooke started. She stepped to Peyton's room and sat down to the bedside. "I'm sorry I have been so hard on you. I'm not really mad at you, I'm just disappointed. It's hard for me to trust people because when I do I always get hurt and I so hoped that you are different. I know you are but I lost my hope and faith for some time. But it's hard without you around. There's lot of things going on in my life and it's difficult if there's no one to talk to." Brooke started crying. Peyton stood up from the chair, walked towards bed, sat down next to Brooke and hugged her.

"I'm sorry Peyton." She whispered.

"No. I'm sorry. I'll never do something like that to you again." Peyton said to her and took her arms away from her.

"So are you coming to L.A. with me?" Brooke asked. She had a smile on her face again.

"Yeah. We're going to have some quality time." Peyton answered and hugged Brooke again.

Lucas and Haley were on the river court. Lucas was throwing ball to basket; Haley sat on the bench and was watching Lucas. Suddenly Lucas stopped and went sat next to Haley.

"You look bad." Haley told him. Lucas wasn't looking at her.

"I'm having second thoughts, Hales." He said quietly.

"About what?"

"About growing up so fast. I mean having child and getting married in age seventeen."

"Lucas!" Haley shouted at him.

"Don't yell at me. Think if you would be like that. You would feel the same thing. I'm sure about that." He spoke and his eyes got wet.

"You are responsible for what you do. It's your child and I think you don't want to be like Dan. Am I right?"

"Yeah. But now I know how he felt back then. It's hard." Lucas now looked at Haley.

"But that's no excuse. No one has ever said that life must be easy."

"It's too hard for me. And I'm not sure if I can handle it."

Haley looked at her friend and she felt really sorry for him. She moved closer to Lucas and hugged him.

Late at the night Brooke showed up behind Peyton's door. She rang the door bell and Peyton's father opened the door.

"I need to see Peyton." Brooke said quietly and she had that frightened look on her face.

"Go ahead. But she's already sleeping." Larry answered and let Brooke in.

"I thought so but I need her right now." Brooke said and stepped in. Larry nodded her with a smile and she walked to Peyton's room.

"Hey, Peyton! Wake up please." She said while she was standing next to Peyton's bed. Peyton slowly opened her eyes and looked at Brooke surprised.

"Why are you here so late?" Peyton asked and rubbed her eyes.

"Can I sleep with you tonight?" Brooke asked for an answer. She looked at Peyton for a second but then looked down quickly.

"Come sit here. Tell me what's wrong." Peyton said to her and she sat to the bed next to Peyton.

"I had this dream. Nightmare actually. I was at the hospital again and that guy held his gun against my head and then he shot and I woke up. Now every time I close my eyes I see that guy and his gun. I just can't close my eyes." Brooke explained.

"Tomorrow we'll fly to L.A. together and you'll forget about that. But tonight you can sleep with me if that makes you feel better." Peyton said and smiled.

"Thanks. You are my bestest friend ever, P.Sawyer." Brooke said and kissed Peyton to cheek. They both smiled. Then they both lied down. Brooke grabbed Peyton's hand and Peyton smiled to her. She felt safe again.

In the morning Peyton was packing in her room and listening to music. She took her best clothes from closet and put them all to suitcase. She added some CDs that she made for the trip and once she was done she closed the suitcase. Then Brooke bounced in wearing a flowery summer dress and flip-flops.

"Ready to go, P.Sawyer?" Brooke asked and looked around. "You are taking so little things with you?" She was surprised to see only one big suitcase.

"Yeah. I don't need all my closet there. I can always buy myself some new clothes. We need to shop anyway, don't we?" Peyton answered cleverly and winked to Brooke.

"That's my girl! Alright, let's go. Cab is already waiting." Brooke said and ran out. Peyton followed her. Outside of the house they saw Lucas and Haley coming towards them.

"You wanted to leave without saying good bye?" Lucas asked when they reached Peyton and Brooke.

"Yea, we had that in mind." Peyton answered to her.

"We don't have much time. C'mon tutor girl. Give me a hug!" Brooke said and grabbed Haley to hug her. Then Peyton kissed Lucas.

"Just call me, alright?" Lucas said and hugged Peyton. He looked at Brooke over Peyton's shoulder and Brooke looked away.

"I love you." Peyton said to him.

"I love you too." Lucas answered and gave her a kiss to forehead. Then he let her away from his embrace so she could hug Haley. He stepped closer to Brooke and hugged her.

"I hope you'll come back." He said to her but she didn't answer, only smiled.

"But we have to go now if we don't want to miss our flight." Peyton said then.

"Okay. Have a good trip. See you around." Lucas said when Brooke and Peyton sat to the cab. Peyton rolled down the window.

"Not very soon!" She yelled out of the window and when cab started driving away they both waved to Lucas and Haley.

_... I've got dreams of love and I love you  
I know you feel the same way too  
I feel your spirit when you're near me and when you're away  
Somehow, somewhere I'll see you again  
But until then I've got dreams of loving you ..._

Preview:

In next chapter there will be only two weeks until school year starts and characters will be seniors.

Peyton arrives back from L.A. Is Brooke with her?

After doing a lot of thinking through the summer, Nathan is ready to take a important step forward.

A storm bonds two people and leaves two life hanging in a balance.

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Lyrics at the end of the chapter are from Gavin DeGraw's song Dreams.


	12. As time went by

I got bored and I made a little "trailer" for my fanfic. You can see it in youtube if you are interested. My username is minaolenliisu.

**As time went by**

When cab stopped in front of Peyton's house, she saw Lucas sitting on the doorstep. He stood up and walked to the cab to help Peyton with bags and suitcase. Peyton came out from the cab and jumped to Lucas. She put her arms around his neck and he wrapped his arms around her waist.

"How was your trip?" Lucas asked.

"It was really great. Only I missed you so much." Peyton answered.

"Me too." He said and kissed Peyton.

Cab drove away and did its next stop – at Brooke's house.

Brooke came out of the cab and then walked towards house with her suitcases. She tried to open the door but it was locked.

„Great!" She said angrily through teeth and dropped suitcases to find a key from her handbag. When she finally found it, she opened the door and stepped in.

"Hi. I'm home. Thanks for caring." Brooke said to herself disappointedly because the house was empty. Her dad was probably gone for a business trip and she was all alone.

Haley was sitting alone at the river court, waiting for Lucas she suddenly saw Nathan approaching with basketball in his hand. When he noticed Haley, he walked to her.

"What are you doing at the river court?" He asked and seemed to be surprised.

"I'm waiting for Lucas but I'm probably going to look for him." She stood up.

"You don't have to go." Nathan said and stepped closer to her.

"I have to." She stepped away from him.

"Why?"

"Because it's so … it's all so wrong." Haley tried to back off but Nathan approached her and kissed her.

"Was that so wrong too?" He asked after kissing her. Haley couldn't say a word.

"I have to go." She said after a while and walked away.

"Haley!" Nathan shouted and tried to make her stop but he couldn't. She was gone.

After leaving the river court, Haley went to Brooke's place to see her. She ran the doorbell and soon Brooke opened the door.

"Oh, Haley!" Brooke said gladly when she saw Haley and hugged her. "Come in." She invited her in and they went to Brooke's room.

"How was the trip?" Haley said when she sat down to Brooke's bed while Brooke was unpacking.

"It was great." She stopped unpacking for a moment and looked at Haley. "It was really good to be with Peyton again. We have been friends for a year but she's really important to me. She was my only real friend here. Now I have you too." She saw Haley smiling.

"What about Lucas?" Haley asked then and Brooke's face totally changed.

"That's more difficult. Maybe now we can be together more because Peyton can trust me. He's a good guy; everyone deserves a friend like him." Brooke said and sat down next to Haley.

"Yeah. We've been friends for a long time. Without him I would have been all alone." Haley said and after that they both stilled for a while. "Can I talk to you about something?" She suddenly asked.

"Yeah, sure." Brooke answered.

"You know, I was at the river court before and Nathan came there. And he … he kissed me." Haley spoke and observed how Brooke's face changed.

"Nathan kissed you? Are we both talking about Nathan Scott?" Brooke asked and jumped up from the bed. "Did you kiss him back?"

"Yes. I did." Haley answered and Brooke panted.

"Girl, you are totally into him which means you are totally screwed!" She said and sat down next to Haley again. "Will you tell to Lucas?"

"I don't know if I'm into him but I know that I can't be and I know it's wrong. And please don't tell Lucas about it. That would hurt him very badly and he doesn't need that right now although they get along better now. Life has been hard enough on him."

Brooke nodded to Haley and put her arm to her shoulder.

Soon the weather changed and thunderstorm hit Tree Hill. Brooke was lying on her bed and watching out as rain pours down. She took her phone and called to Peyton. It was sixth time in a row. Still she couldn't get to her and that made her worry so she called to Lucas.

"Hi Luke. I wanted to ask if you know anything about Peyton." She asked when she heard Lucas' voice on the phone.

"_No. I guess she's at home. Where else she could be?"_ Lucas answered.

"I've been trying to call her like thousand times. She won't answer."

"_She probably left her phone to her car or something. I'm sure she's okay."_

"But she's not. I can feel that. I'm going to find her."

"_No, Brooke …"_ Lucas tried to stop her but she hang up the phone. She took her jacket from the closet and tried to find car keys. By the time she went out of the house, Lucas was already there.

"What are you doing here?" Brooke asked from Lucas when he ran to her while she was walking to her car through the rain.

"I came here to stop you from going there. Look at the weather. It's going worse with every minute!" Lucas tried to held Brooke back.

"My best friend is somewhere out there and who knows what has happened to her! I need to find her, Luke." She almost yelled at Lucas and tried to leave him behind but he didn't let her.

"Brooke, listen to me right now. If you go there you might set yourself in danger. I believe that Peyton's okay. So don't worry about her, okay?"

"Now listen to me, Lucas. I almost lost her already but I got her back. Now I might lose her forever." Brooke spoke to Lucas and tears got mixed with rain on her face.

"You won't lose her. I promise you." Lucas said and held Brooke's hands. "Now go inside." He told her and they hugged. Brooke looked down and walked away from Lucas. But soon she stopped and turned around.

"Maybe you want to come in? I mean it's heavily raining and it gets worse so it's safer for you to stay here until it goes over." She offered and waited for Lucas' answer. He only nodded and walked to house after Brooke.

Meanwhile Peyton was ready to go home from the hospital. Nobody knew she was there. She ran out of the hospital to get to her car quickly. She looked at her phone – there were 12 missed calls and they all were from Brooke. She tried to call back to her but it kept saying that she was out of the broadcasting area. It was probably because of the storm. So she actuated her car and drove away from the hospital. When she stopped under the traffic lights she noticed they weren't working so she drove on. Visibility was very bad so she didn't see the other car coming from the side and in the middle of the crossroad Peyton hit that car. She lied unconsciously in her car, like the other driver.

At Brooke's place Brooke was looking for some towels while Lucas made himself feel comfortable in the living room. Soon Brooke came with towels and sat down next to Lucas. She had already changed her clothes.

"Here. Take it." She said and handed a towel to Lucas. He took it and started trying his hair.

"Sure your father won't mind if I'm here?" He asked then.

"No. He's not here." Brooke answered and varied sad. "He won't be before end of the summer."

Then suddenly lights went out and Brooke flinched. She felt out to find where Lucas is.

"I got to find some candles." She said and stood up but Lucas pulled her back.

"I'll do it. Where do you hold candles?" He asked.

"In the kitchen, in one of the drawers. I'm not sure in which one."

After that Lucas left the room but soon he came back with lighted up candles. He put them to the table in front of the couch and sat back next to Brooke. They just sat there and didn't say a word for some time.

"Don't you get lonely living like this?" Lucas asked and broke that uncomfortable silence between them.

"Sometimes, yes. Then I think that living with my mom and her new fiancé would be even worse. But then again I feel like I need someone to be here with me so I can talk to someone." Brooke explained and she looked down not to look at Lucas.

"I could be that person for you. You can call me anytime you need me." Lucas responded and Brooke raised her head again. Now she was looking deep into Lucas' eyes. She wanted to turn her head away once again but she couldn't. Like she didn't control herself. So Lucas didn't turn away either. Instead of turning away he leaned on and kissed Brooke. She didn't stop him, just kissed her back. She still couldn't control herself. She knew it was wrong but she couldn't do anything about it. However, she finally pulled away. They both stared at each other with shocked looks.

_... As time went by  
As time lingered on  
As the sonic fireworks faded  
As time went by  
We knew it wasn't __going to last ..._

Preview:

Peyton's accident has tragic consequences.

Why was Peyton at the hospital? Truth will come out and hurt someone really badly.

Will Brooke tell Peyton about the kiss?

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Lyrics at the end of the chapter are from Janez Detd's song Class Of 92.


	13. Calm between the storms

Thanks to bornagainbrucasfan for a great idea. Read the chapter and you'll see. :)

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**Calm ****between the storms**

Lucas opened his eyes at the morning because of a phone call. He tried to reach his phone but then whipped it off of the cupboard. He had to bend down to get it. When he finally answered it he heard Brooke's nervous voice saying that Peyton is in hospital because of a car accident. After hearing that he got up from the bed as quickly as he could, got dressed up and rushed out. When he reached the hospital, he saw Nathan and Haley there.

"How are they?" Lucas asked nervously.

"Both lives are safe. But Peyton's legs are very badly damaged. Doctors said that she may never walk again. We can see her soon." Haley explained and Lucas fell down to the chair blandly. Nathan sat down next to him.

"I'm sorry, bro." He said and put his hand to Lucas' shoulder. They sat there for a while.

"Where's Brooke?" Lucas asked suddenly and looked around to find her.

"She's somewhere near here, I'm not sure. She said she couldn't be with us because she feels like she's one to blame." Haley answered to him. He stood up and went to search for Brooke. He didn't have to search much; he soon found her sitting alone in the other side of the corridor.

"Hey! Why are you sitting here alone?" He asked when he approached to Brooke. She bent her head.

"How can I be there and see all those sad faces if it's all my fault? I can't." She sobbed. Lucas sat down next to her.

"Oh, Brooke. It's not your fault." Lucas tried to comfort her and put his arm around her shoulders.

"It is. I told you I need to find her before something bad happen. And you promised to me I won't lose her. Now I will." Brooke responded. "I got to get out of here." She added. She stood up and walked away madly. Lucas stood up too but he didn't follow her, he walked back to Haley and Nathan.

"How is she?" Haley asked with worried tone in her voice.

"She left." Lucas answered shortly and walked away from them again.

Lucas went to beach for a walk. He was surprised when he found Brooke sitting alone there. He approached to her and sat down to sand next to her. He put his arm to Brooke's shoulder and she flinched a little.

"I'm sorry that I frightened you." Lucas apologized and tried to contact with Brooke. "I didn't know you like to be here."

"I didn't know it either. I just came here." Brooke answered tersely. She was looking at the sea. Lucas tried to catch her eye but he couldn't. So he looked at the sea too. They both stilled and they could hear how waves were foaming quietly.

"You know it's not your fault right?" Lucas soon broke the silence. "It just …"

"Lucas." Brooke interrupted him. "I feel so guilty. Instead of looking for her I invited you to my place which was a really bad idea."

"Brooke …" Lucas tried to spoke back but Brooke didn't let him.

"Don't start justifying. You kissed me."

"And you kissed me back."

"That doesn't matter, Luke. That kiss was just a … kiss. Now I'm in trouble because of that kiss. Because of you. So please leave me alone!" Brooke yelled at Lucas. She stood up and ran away. Lucas couldn't stop her.

Lucas went back to the hospital. He watched Haley and Nathan from further away. Seemed like they get along very well. Haley was with Nathan and Lucas almost whole summer but that wasn't friendly spark between them. He went on to them.

"Is there any news?" He asked from Haley and Nathan.

"We can visit her now." Haley answered and Lucas wanted to go in but she stopped him. "Her father is there. He should come out soon." Soon after Haley said those words, Larry came out from Peyton's room.

"Hi." Lucas said and shook hands with Larry. "How is she?" He asked.

"She's pretty crushed. You go in. You can cheer her up a bit for sure." Larry answered and left. Lucas walked to Peyton's room.

"Hi, baby. He said when he entered. He walked to the bed and kissed Peyton.

"I wanted to see you. Where were you?" She asked curiously when Lucas sat down next to her bed and held her hand.

"I was right here at the hospital."

"But my dad said that you weren't there."

"Yeah. I was gone for a moment. I went to search Brooke. She's pretty much messed up."

"Oh, I want to see her! Can you call her later?"

"Yeah, sure." Lucas answered and then he changed to serious. "What doctors said about your legs?" He asked and Peyton turned her look away. Lucas could hear her sobbing.

"I don't want to talk about that." She answered quietly and was still looking away.

"We need to talk about it, Peyton. We are a couple and couples talk about everything."

"Will you please just leave?" Peyton whispered and ignored Lucas. He left, although he didn't want to. He wanted to talk to Peyton, hear her out. But that was her decision.

Lucas went to home. He sat beside his desk and wrote in his computer when he suddenly heard knocking on the door. He stood up, walked to the door and opened it. He was really surprised to see teary Brooke standing in front of him.

"Hi Brooke. Come in." He said and Brooke stepped in. Lucas closed the door. Brooke turned around and faced him.

"I just came to apologize." Brooke said. She saw that Lucas opened his mouth to say something but she stopped her. "Don't say anything. I was too hard on you at the hospital and at the beach. It's just … There are so many things going on right now and I'm totally messed up. I can't think straight, I can't sleep, I can't be! I feel that guilt in my heart more and more with every step I take."

"I understand you. I really do and I'm not mad at you." Lucas answered and stepped closer to her.

"But I'm sorry. And I hope that things will work out for you and Peyton."

"By the way, Peyton wants to see you."

"I was on my way actually. But then I decided to drop by. I needed to free myself from that guilt and pain. I know I have been such a bitch to you and I really regret that." Brooke said and she started sobbing. Lucas stepped closer to Brooke. Now he was right in front of her so his body almost touched her body.

"It's okay. Everything's going to be alright." He said and put his hands to her shoulders. He pulled her closer to hug her. They stood there for few minutes and then Brooke pulled away a bit but she was still there in Lucas' arms. They looked at each other and soon their lips got close. His lips almost touched hers but then the door opened and they both looked at Haley who stood there. Brooke pulled out of Lucas' embrace.

"Oh god. I got to go." She said and walked out. Haley closed the door and walked to Lucas.

"Did you just kiss her?" Haley asked from Lucas. He sat to the bedside and Haley sat down next to him.

"Not this time." Lucas answered shortly and looked down.

"This time? You have kissed her?" Haley raised her voice.

"Yeah. It just happened."

"Lucas!" Haley yelled at him. "How could you do something like that? When will you tell Peyton?"

"I won't tell her. At least not right now. That would really kill her."

"But you have to tell her." Haley said and sighed. "But I actually came here because I wanted to tell you about something." She continued.

"Okay. Tell me." Lucas responded and waited for Haley to talk.

"Remember, we promised to meet at the river court the other day?" She asked.

"Yeah. But you weren't there. Nathan told me that you left."

"That's the point. I left because …" She stopped for a moment and took a deep breath. "Nathan kissed me."

"He did what?" Lucas asked angrily.

"Don't freak out please. I kissed him back. And at hospital he asked me out."

"I can't believe what I'm hearing right now."

"Do you think he has changed?"

"I don't know, Hales. I don't know." Lucas sounded very disappointed. He took Haley's hand. "But I know that you'll do the right thing."

Haley smiled and hugged him.

At the morning after waking up, Lucas went straight to the hospital. When he walked to Peyton's room, she was still sleeping. Lucas sat down next to her bed and just watched her. Soon she opened her eyes.

"Hey. What are you doing here so early?" She asked weakly and quietly.

"I just watched you sleeping." Lucas answered.

"And was it worth watching?"

"Yeah. You are so beautiful. My girl, my wife."

Peyton smiled for a moment but then tears fell down from her eyes. Lucas noticed it.

"Hey, beauty. Why are you crying?" He asked.

"At the night when that car crash happened I was on my way back from the hospital. I never told anyone I'm going there because … I took a paternity test." Peyton started talking. Lucas felt a lot of confusion falling to him. Peyton continued talking. "And I got the results today."

"And?" Lucas asked. Now he was totally confused. Seeing Peyton's sad face, he knew it won't be anything good.

"That baby … that baby isn't yours." Peyton said and Lucas was totally numb after hearing that. "The father of my baby is … Jake."

"How could that be?" Lucas asked. He was really angry.

"It happened when Nathan and I was a couple." Peyton tried to explain but Lucas stood up and walked out. She turned her head away and started crying more than before.

_... The kind of day when nothing hits the fan  
The kind of day when nothing's in demand  
The kind of day when music means Chopin  
And love is shown by holding hands  
It's the calm before the storm ..._

Preview:

Will Brooke tell Peyton about the kiss?

Will Peyton tell Jake about the baby?

Nathan takes Haley out to a date but the night won't end well.

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Lyrics at the end of the chapter are from Sparks' song The Calm Before the Storm.


	14. Too late

I'm so sorry that it took me so long to update the story. I moved to another place and I didn't have internet. And this chapter is really really bad and short too. I hope you're not mad at me. (:

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**Too late**

Brooke parked her car to hospital's parking lot. She walked to hospital doors and took a deep breath before going in. She found the corridor where Peyton's room is and walked to its door. She looked trough the window of the door and saw Jake sitting next to Peyton. They were laughing and both seemed to be pleased. So Brooke sat down to a chair and waited until Jake came out.

"Hi, Brooke. How are you doing?" He asked when he saw Brooke after closing the door behind him.

"Oh. Hi Jake. I'm fine. How's Peyton?" Brooke answered when she stood up.

"She makes me think she's okay but seems like something is wrong. You should talk to her." Jake said and Brooke nodded to him. He walked away and Brooke stepped into the room. She walked to Peyton's bed.

"Hi, P.Sawyer. How are you today?" She asked quietly with a soft voice. She looked at Peyton's face and saw convivial solar rays falling down to her face. That made her face look so shiny but still not happy.

"I'm fine. I just want to go home." Peyton answered to Brooke but she lied. After that they stilled. That made Brooke nervous and she couldn't keep her secret to herself any longer.

"Peyton." She said and looked at her.

"Yeah?" Peyton responded.

"I need to tell you about something." Brooke started. "You know you are my best friend and that's why I can't hide it from you."

"Tell me already!" Peyton said impatiently.

"Okay. At the night of the accident I called to Lucas to ask where you are and I said I'll find you. Then he came to stop me and the weather got worse with every minute and I invited him in. So we were talking and …" She stopped and took a deep breath. "And I kissed Lucas." Brooke finished and quickly turned her back to Peyton.

"Did he kiss you back?" Peyton asked with a bit raspy voice.

"Yeah." Brooke answered with a hard sigh. She waited for Peyton to say something, to respond somehow but she didn't say a word so Brooke turned around. She looked at Peyton's face again. All that shine on her face had turned to disappointment and tears were falling from her big green eyes.

"Peyton?" Brooke said and tried to make her speak. "Talk to me! Yell at me! Please don't be quiet." She almost begged Peyton.

"Just go, Brooke. Just go away." Peyton responded quietly and calmly. Brooke started crying and walked out of the door slowly. She left the hospital and went to a park near there. She sat down to a bench and tears poured to her eyes again but she wiped them away. Suddenly she felt someone's hand on her shoulder. She turned her head and saw Lucas standing right behind her. He sat down next to Brooke.

"Why are you here and not at the hospital?" She asked and looked at him.

"I don't know if I can go there anymore." Lucas answered. Brooke understood that he was sad.

"What happened?" Brooke was worried about them.

"We had a fight yesterday and I don't know if it will be okay."

"Why were you fighting?" Brooke got curious.

"Umm. It's hard." Lucas answered to her and shed his head. "That night when she crashed her car, she came to hospital to take a paternity test. And guess what. I'm not the father! It's Jake's." Lucas spoke and his eyes got wet.

"Oh my god. I'm so stupid." Brooke whispered and shook her head.

"What?"

"I just told Peyton that we kissed." Brooke started crying again. "That's going to kill her. But I saw Jake at the hospital and he said that he thinks there's something wrong with Peyton. So I guess she didn't tell him."

"Then it's my turn to do something." Lucas said quietly. He stood up and walked away, leaving Brooke behind confused. He went straight to Jake's house. He walked up from the stairs and knocked to the door. Soon Jake opened the door.

"I need to talk to you." Lucas said right when he saw Jake's face without even saying hi.

"Okay. Come in." Jake answered and opened the door completely so Lucas could step in but he didn't.

"No, I think it's better if we talk outside." He said. Jake closed the door and they both sat down to the doorstep of Jake's house.

"I heard you visited Peyton before." Lucas started a conversation with twirling because he couldn't find right words to say.

"Yeah." Jake answered.

"Didn't she tell you something about her baby?"

"No. Did she have to?" Jake got really confused now.

"Okay then. She took a paternity test." Lucas said, at the same time still thinking about how to say it right.

"And so?"

"Baby isn't mine. It's … yours." He finally said it and felt relieved. But Jake was very shocked. He wanted to say something but words just didn't come out. Without saying anything, he stood up and went to the house. Lucas sat there for few minutes longer but then stood up too and walked away.

After Lucas was gone, Jake just took his jacket and got to his car. He drove to the hospital. Jake saw from the window of door that Peyton was watching TV. She shut down TV when Jake came in. He walked to her bed but didn't sit down.

"Why didn't you tell me, Peyton?" He asked and looked deep into Peyton's eyes. He wasn't angry, not even little mad.

"Jake. I wanted to but I guess I was scared." Peyton answered and turned her look away.

"About what? That I would leave my child? I'm not like that. I'll be there for you if you only want to." He said and Peyton looked at him again. They both smiled.

Brooke was walking and drinking coffee at the river walk alone. She looked at the river and thought about Peyton and Lucas. That made her sad. She was so deep in thoughts that she didn't notice Haley approaching her.

"Hey! Brooke!" Haley said when she was right behind her. Brooke flinched a little and then turned around.

"Oh, Haley. I didn't see you coming." Brooke answered quietly.

"Is anything wrong?" Haley asked after noticing Brooke's sad look.

"Oh, everything is okay if I count out that my best friend hates me because I ruined her life. She's going trough a lot and I can't be there for her. I mean knowing that the one you thought to be the father of the child isn't that …" Brooke stopped talking when she saw Haley's face changing. "What?" She asked.

"Did you just say that Lucas isn't Peyton's baby's father or were you talking about someone else?" Haley sound confused.

"Tell me you didn't know about it! Oh Jesus. Yeah, I said that. It's kind of difficult story, you should ask from Lucas or Peyton." Brooke said and rolled her eyes.

"Oh, okay. I would bomb it out of you but I got to go. I have date!" Haley said cleverly and winked to Brooke.

"A date? Sweet!" Brooke responded and Haley walked away from her, still smiling.

Brooke was alone at the home at the late night. She was painting her nails on her bed when she heard door bell ringing. She walked to the door and opened it. She was surprised to find teary Haley standing in front of her.

"Oh, come in Haley." She said and Haley step in. Brooke closed the door.

"I'm sorry to bother you so late." Haley said and took off her jacket.

"It's okay. You can come here whenever you want to." Brooke said and led Haley to her bedroom. They sat down on her bed. "Now tell me what happened."

"Um. Remember, I told you I have a date?" Haley asked and Brooke nodded. "Nathan and I went out. He took me to a fancy restaurant. Everything was  
perfect. After the diner we walked together, held hands. He was so sweet. I  
couldn't ask for more. Then he invited me to his place and then I realized all  
he wanted was to get me to his bed." Haley explained everything and started  
sobbing even more than before.  
"Oh, Haley!" Brooke said and put her arm around her shoulders. "You know what  
Nathan's like. He has always been like that."  
"Yeah. I know. I'm such a fool."  
"No you're not. Nathan has always been a jerk and I know he's attractive and  
good girls always want him and bad girls even want him more but you have to  
resist. You have to show him that you are looking for something more in a man.  
Don't let him get into you and change you."  
"You know Brooke, you are such a great friend. People should see that side of  
you more often."  
"Yea. But for some reasons they always see that "blonde" slut side of me."  
Brooke responded and rolled her eyes. She sounded so funny that it made Haley  
laugh and they both laughed together.

Lucas stepped into Peyton's room at the hospital. He noticed she was asleep but  
he didn't leave. He just watched her sleeping. He used to love those big green  
eyes and soft curly blonde hair so much. He loved the person inside that body.  
When they first met he saw something special inside of her. He still sees that  
and still loves her but not like before. He looked at her for a few minutes and  
then she slowly opened her eyes.

"Hey, Luke. What are you doing here?" She asked quietly with tired and raspy voice.

"I came to see you. How are you?" Lucas responded.

"Better. My doctor said that I could get out of hospital soon but I have to go to the retreat so I won't be at school in the beginning of the senior year."

"Good to hear that. Did Jake talk to you?" He asked and suddenly turned cold. Peyton noticed it right away.

"Yeah. He told me he'll be there for me if I need anything."

"That's great. Actually I want to talk to you about something."

"So tell me."

"I think we should end this thing."

"You mean what?"

"We should break up." Lucas finally said. Peyton couldn't believe it. She felt like her heart fell into million pieces. Nothing hurts more than loving someone who doesn't love you the way you do.

_... it's too late now for you to say your sorry  
It's too late now for you to make amends  
You're gonna pay for all the lies you told me  
Well don't apologize 'cause it's too late ..._

Preview:

Lucas and Peyton are over!

A friendship will be repeared.

Lucas makes a shocking and life changing decision.

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Lyrics at the end of the chapter are from Kinks' song It's Too Late.


	15. The Goodbye

Short and really short and crappy chapter again. I don't have much time for writing right now. Next chapter will be short again and then I'm trying to write some longer and better chapters.

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**The**** Goodbye**

„But Luke ..." Peyton tried to say something but she couldn't. She could only feel hard cold tears rolling down her cheeks. Her face turned pale and her eyes were red.

"It's not about you, Peyton. I still love you but I just can't do this anymore. I think that your baby needs to be with his father." Lucas tried to explain. He was sad too; even tears came to his eyes. He was the one who had to hurt the people he loves. It hurts even more than getting heart broken.

"You can be her father." She tried to make him change his mind.

"No. I think it's better if you and Jake talk things through and maybe you'll work out something. I'm not the right person for raising a child."

"Lucas. I love you." Peyton said and cried even more than before.

"I love you too, Peyton but I can't go on like this. It's over."

Lucas was walking to Haley's place. He looked around all the time. The sun was shining brightly but he couldn't feel good about it. His life was turned upside down and he didn't know what to do. He thought about everything. Peyton, Brooke, baby, Jake, Haley, Nathan, mom, Keith. But still he couldn't clear his mind. When he approached Haley's house he saw Haley and Nathan arguing in front of the house. He walked closer to them.

"What's wrong with you guys?" He asked and looked at Nathan, then at Haley.

"With us? There are no us." Haley answered to Lucas without looking at him and walked away from them. Lucas looked at Nathan questionly but he only his shoulders.

"Tell me what happened." Lucas said when they were alone with Lucas and they walked along the street.

"You know I asked her out and everything just went wrong because I'm not the kind of guy she wants me to be." Nathan explained.

"So what did you do?" Lucas asked and raised an eyebrow.

"I guess I moved too fast."

"Oh, man! You know Hales is different than the other girls you have dated. You have to treat her like she's special because she is."

"I know. I know. But I can't change over night. I need time."

"I'm sure she gives you that if you only talk to her."

Nathan had insecurity on his face and he didn't respond. They just walked on.

Brooke went to hospital again. She looked Peyton from the window first. Sun wasn't shining on her anymore and all that brightness had turned to sadness. She stepped in but stopped at the door. She took a look at Peyton but she didn't look at her. Brooke walked a bit closer to Peyton. Still no words. Brooke could only hear her sobbing quietly.

"Peyton, are you okay?" She asked when she stepped next to the bed.

"No." Peyton whispered quietly.

"What happened?"

"Lucas."

"Lucas? What's with him?" Brooke got worried. She sat down to Peyton's bed side. Peyton turned her head and looked at her.

"We broke up." Peyton answered and Brooke saw tears falling from her eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Peyton. I didn't mean to ..."

"It's not your fault."

"I kissed him. I betrayed you." Brooke eyes got wet too. But she didn't see accusing in Peyton's look.

"Yeah. You kissed him but that's not the thing. And I'm not mad at you because of that. Of course that hurt me, you are my best friend after all but I knew it would happen. I was sure about it."

"So we are still best friends?" Brooke asked quietly.

"Forever." Peyton answered and smiled to Brooke through tears. Brooke smiled back to her and squeezed her hand.

Brooke and Peyton chatted a bit and then Brooke left. On her way out of the hospital she saw Jake.

"Hey. How is she?" Jake asked when he saw Brooke.

"She needs you right now more than ever before." Brooke answered and smiled to him. He smiled back to her. Then they both walked on again. Brooke walked out of the hospital. She wanted to go to Karen's café. She was without her car so she walked. She met Haley on her way.

"Seems like someone is happy again." Haley said when she was closer to Brooke.

"Yeah. I'm coming from the hospital. I think Peyton and I are okay again." Brooke responded with a shiny grin. Haley smiled too but that smile was whipped away in a second.

"But seems like someone's not very happy." Brooke continued after seeing Haley's sad face.

"Yeah. Still the same reasons but I don't want to talk about it. You better tell me if you have organized something for the end of the summer? I mean, if I understood right that you wanted to throw it?"

"Oh my god. I've totally forgot. Summer ending's party is coming and I haven't even thought about it. But are you sure there's a point of the party?"

"Why not? Everyone likes to party."

"Yea, they usually do but Peyton and Lucas broke up, you and Nathan are fighting."

"Oh, that's no reason. There has always been a party. It's a tradition. We can't cancel it because of our fights."

"Okay then I'll figure out something." Brooke sighed hardly.

Later at the night Haley went to Lucas' place. They were best friends after all but they didn't spend much time together. She was so busy with her problems with Nathan and Lucas was messed up because of stuff that happened between him and Peyton. They used to be always together but now they both have their own lives. But Haley misses Lucas. So she wanted to see him, talk to him. When she was in front of Lucas' house, she saw him sitting on the doorstep alone in the dark. She walked towards him and sat down next to him.

"Everything okay?" She asked after sitting in silence for a while.

"No. Not really." Lucas answered, still looking at the sky.

"Why's that?"

Lucas didn't answer. He silenced and though a minute.

"You know I used to love Tree Hill. I loved the time when there were only you and I. I love how we hang out together and ate ice cream and played golf on the rooftop. Life was so good and easy. But since I joined the basketball everything has changed." He said then and stopped for a moment. "I only have problems in my life right now. I wish I could turn back the time."

"It's not that bad. I'm sure it'll get better." Haley tried to comfort Lucas but it didn't help.

"But I'm not. Everything's wrong, Haley."

"Luke…"

"Haley I can't go on like that. There's too much bad in here for me. I want to leave Tree Hill."

"Are you serious? I mean school starts soon and you can be away only for a few weeks. Is there a point?"

"No, Hales. You misunderstood me. I want to leave Tree Hill forever. I want to move away and start my life over again, somewhere else."

"Lucas you can't just leave like that!" Haley had tears in her eyes and she raised her voice. "What about me? About your mom? Keith? Basketball team? Are you really heartless enough to leave all that behind?"

"No." He answered quietly with head shed down. Haley could hear him sobbing a little. "It's the hardest decision I've ever made in my life but I know it's the only way out of this madness. I need to do it Hales." Lucas raised his head and looked at Haley. She put her arms around his neck and pulled him closer.

"I'm going to miss you so much." Haley said while embracing Lucas.

"I'm going to miss you even more." He answered.

_... I don't believe you  
And I never will,  
Oh I can't live by your side  
with the lies you've tried to __instill,   
I can't take anymore,  
I don't have to give you a reason  
For leaving this time  
Cos this is my last goodbye ..._

Preview:

Lucas tells others about moving away. How will they take it?

Peyton gets out of the hospital.

Haley tries to change Lucas' mind and at the same time talk things through with Nathan.

Brooke is broken when Lucas tells her about his decision.

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Lyrics at the end of the chapter are from James Morrison's song The Last Goodbye.


	16. Is this the end?

**Is this the end?**

When Lucas woke up next morning, he stood up from the bed and went to the kitchen. He stopped on the door and looked at his mom and Keith. They had been living together for whole summer now and they were never happier. In that morning they were drinking their coffees and laughed like always. They were happy and Lucas was about to ruin that right now. So he stepped to the kitchen.

"Morning mom, morning Keith." He said and sat down to the empty chair between them.

"Morning." Keith answered and smiled to him.

"How did you sleep?" Karen asked when she poured coffee to Lucas' cup.

"Not very well." Lucas answered and looked down.

"Why's that?" Keith asked then and looked at Lucas.

"Actually I wanted to talk to you about it." He said. Karen and Keith both looked at Lucas, waiting for an answer.

"Mom, do you remember that our cousins moved to Boston last year?" He started. Karen nodded to him. "I want to move there and live with them." When he finished, Karen put her cup to the table and just stared at Lucas.

"Luke, you can't leave now. School starts again soon and you have all your life and friends here." Keith finally said when he realized that Karen is too shocked to say something.

"Lucas. It's your senior year. Why do you have to change school now? WHY? Did you even think about me? What would I feel when you leave?" Karen yelled at Lucas. She was full of anger and pain.

"Mom. For once in my life I have to do something for myself. I've always done all for others, now it's my turn." Lucas raised his voice too.

"As you wish." Karen said and stood up. She didn't look at Keith or Lucas but just walked out of the kitchen.

"Are you sure this is what you want?" Keith asked after Karen left.

"Yeah. And I will do that."

"Do you realize how much that hurts your mother?"

"I know, I know. I just can't stay."

Brooke went to hospital to visit Peyton. When she was behind her room's door, she saw doctors enhancing Peyton to a wheelchair; Jake was standing next to her. She smiled and opened the door to walk in.

"Hey P.Sawyer! You are getting home already?" She cheered when she walked to Peyton and Jake.

"Yea. I can't wait to get home." Peyton said. She sounded tired but she was ready to go home. Jake put his hands to wheelchair's handles and push it to the door.

"Are you coming with us?" Jake asked from Brooke.

"Of course. How couldn't I?" Brooke said. She pushed one shoulder up in a half-shrug and followed them out of the hospital. They drove to Peyton's place with Jake's car. When they stopped in front of Peyton's house and came out of the car they were really surprised. Jake had taken care of everything to make the house comfortable for Peyton.

"You did all that?" Peyton asked Jake and looked at him.

"Yep. I talked to doctors and they gave me some instructions. And I also got help from your dad." Jake answered and smiled to Peyton. Brooke just watched them beyond and smiled too.

"Thank you." Peyton said to Jake and couldn't take her eyes off of Jake. Brooke could feel an embarrassing moment coming.

"Maybe we should go in now?" She said to stop it.

"Oh, yeah. I'll help you." Jake said to Peyton then. Brooke walked to the door and opened it, so Jake could bring Peyton in. He put Peyton to her bed and Brooke sat down next to her.

"I got to go to the mall and bring something to eat. Brooke, could you stay until I come back?" Jake said then.

"Sure." Brooke nodded to him and he left. She turned to Peyton.

"Okay, girl. Now tell me everything." She said.

"About what?" Peyton looked confused.

"You and Jake of course." Brooke said and almost jumped up from the bed because of excitement.

"Brooke! I just broke up with Lucas and you think I already have a new relationship!"

"I'm sorry, Peyt. I didn't mean to say that you don't love Lucas. I know you do and I know you are hurt but you and Jake, you two are so sweet together and I'm pretty sure he's into you. And by the way, he's hot!" Brooke spoke enthusiastically and giggled like a little girl.

"Brooke!" Peyton hollered at Brooke, at the same time trying to hold back laughter.

"What? It's true! You know that, don't you?" Brooke eyed Peyton with a foxy look and she started laughing. Soon Brooke laughed with her.

Lucas and Nathan played basketball at the River Court when Haley approached them.

"Hey Luke!" She hollered, ignoring Nathan's look.

"What's up?" Lucas answered.

"Haley?" Nathan tried to get Haley's attention.

"I want to talk to you about your moving. Alone." She answered to Lucas and didn't even look at Nathan. He turned his look to Lucas and nodded with head for good bye and walked away but he stayed to the river side.

"Hales, there's nothing to talk about." Lucas said when he looked at Haley again.

"Do you really have to go?"

"Yes. I need to get my life back to tracks."

"I don't know, I don't think you should go. You have your family and friends here; you have me and Brooke's here too. I know you love her, it's so obvious."

"You're right but I'm sure she doesn't want me. I broke Peyton's heart and Brooke and I dating could make things even worse."

"But you have to tell her about your feelings. She has a right to know."

"I know that. And I'll try to tell her somehow, but I'm leaving tomorrow. I only have 24 hours and I haven't even told her that I'm leaving."

"Gash, Lucas. You have to tell her. Now! Take your phone and call her!"

"Okay. Okay. Calm down now." Lucas took his phone from pocket and dialed Brooke's number. "Hey Brooke. Where are you? I need to talk to you. I'll come there." He ended the call, put away his phone, waved to Haley and left. Haley didn't leave. She sat down to the bench. Nathan hadn't left either, so he walked to Haley.

"What do you want?" Haley asked him and tried to be arrogant.

"I hear you and Lucas talking. I know how he feels and it's really better for him to leave." Nathan answered calmly.

"He's my best friend. He has always been there for me and I don't want him to go. Is that a crime?" Haley yelled at him.

"No. Just look to it from his point of view and try to understand."

"Why are you even talking to me?"

"Because we need to talk."

"There's nothing to talk about." Haley said. She stood up and walked away. When she was further away from him, she started crying.

"Why can't you be a sweet, loving guy? Why? And why I have to fall for a wrong guy for the first time." She asked herself and cried even more.

Meanwhile Lucas drove to Peyton's place. He and Brooke sat down to a bench in Peyton's garden.

"What is that important thing you need to tell me about?" Brooke asked and hoped it's a confession. She needed to know his feelings.

"It's hard. Only my mom, Keith, Nathan and Haley know about it." He stopped and took a deep breath. "I'm leaving Tree Hill, Brooke." He looked at Brooke. She was confused and completely speechless. It was like a cold shower for her.

"When?" She could ask only. She was shocked. That wasn't exactly what she expected.

"Tomorrow. I know its bad time for leaving but I need to go."

"I don't know what to say. It's so sudden."

"You don't have to say anything. Nothing will change my mind. I've done my decision."

"But where are you going?"

"I'm going to Boston, tomorrow at 7 pm. But I promise I won't forget you. I'm going to miss you so much."

"Yeah. Me too." Brooke answered and Lucas hugged her. He smelled her perfume, touched her hair with his lips. He could be there forever. Then Brooke let him go. She walked him to his cat. He drove away and she waved to him. When he was gone, Brooke started crying. She went inside, stepped into Peyton's room where Peyton lied on the bed and Jake sat next to her, and lapsed numbly to the bedside.

"Lucas is leaving Tree Hill tomorrow and he's not coming back." She said quietly with tears falling from her eyes. Peyton didn't say anything and asked Jake to still too because she knew why Brooke was so sad about it. She knew about her feelings for Lucas. She had the same feelings to him but at that moment it didn't matter.

_... I think I'll go to Boston  
I think I'll start a new life,  
I think I'll start it over, _

_where no one knows my name,_

_I think I need a new town, _

_to leave this all behind..._

Preview:

Will Lucas tell Brooke about his feelings before he leaves?

Can Brooke stop Lucas from leaving?

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Lyrics at the end of the chapter are from Augustana's song Boston.


	17. Coming for you

Another short chapter, but this one is important for Brucas. (:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Coming for you**

Lucas walked on the street and stopped in front of Brooke's house. He walked towards the house and put a letter to the doorknob. After that he walked away again. In the afternoon Brooke arrived home. She spent the night at Peyton's place. She saw the letter and took it inside. She looked at the envelope. There stood "BROOKE", wrote with familiar handwriting. She opened it and started reading.

_Dear Brooke._

_I'm writing you this letter because I'm leaving Tree Hill tonight and I have some things to say. I have feelings for you. Really great feelings. I love you, Brooke. I don't know how else to say it. I know I should have said it to you personally but I didn't find that courage in myself. When I first saw you in school, I thought you are like all the cheerleaders, typical. But when I got to know you, I realized there's more inside you and I fell in love with the real you. I would like to stay but I can't, and I'm sorry. I just wanted you to know. I hope you'll be happy. Maybe someday we'll meet again._

_With love,_

_Lucas_

She dropped the letter to the floor. She couldn't believe what she just had read. The line "I love you, Brooke" still ran in front of her eyes. That's everything she wanted to hear from Lucas. She had to tell Peyton about it, so she drove back to Peyton's place. Peyton was alone because Jake was at work. She barged in and sat down to the bedside.

"Whoa. What happened to you?" Peyton asked when she noticed Brooke breathing nervously.

"Lucas left me a letter this morning. He loves me, Peyton." Brooke answered and looked at Peyton. Her eyes were wet.

"That's great, Brooke." Peyton said and smiled. She really felt happy for Brooke because she knew that her relationship with Lucas was over for good.

"How is this great? Firstly you love him; secondly he's leaving tonight, in few hours. If he really loves me then why he leaves?" Brooke now cried more than before and her voice got raspier because of that.

"Brooke. Do you love him?"

"Yes. I do. But I can't …"

"You can be together. Listen to me now. You love him and he loves you. What else do you need? Nothing makes me happier than seeing you being happy. You deserve Lucas after all those crappy relationships you have had. He will take good care of you and you need him."

"What I'm going to do, Peyton? There's nothing I can do."

"You can find him and talk to him. You still have few hours before he leaves."

"But he wants to leave and he said that nothing's going to change his mind." Brooke cried hysterically now and couldn't think straight.

"Just go and find him!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Go now!" Peyton encouraged Brooke and finally she stood up from the bedside and walked away doubtfully. Outside, at the car she tried to call to Lucas but he didn't answer. Brooke drove to Haley's place to ask if she knows anything about Lucas. She knocked on the door and soon Haley's mom opened the door.

"Hi. Is Haley at home?" Brooke asked and tried to hold back tears.

"Yes. Come in. She is in her room." Haley's mom answered and led Brooke to Haley's room. "Haley, sweetheart. You have a guest." Brooke stepped into the room. Haley's mom left and closed the door behind her.

"Brooke. What's wrong? Have you been crying?" Haley asked and walked to Brooke.

"Yeah. I need to know where Lucas is." Brooke answered.

"Oh. He's already at the airport I think." Haley said. Her answer shocked Brooke. Is it too late?

"Already? Why? He still has few hours, hasn't he?" She panicked.

"He decided to go with an earlier flight. He leaves in thirty minutes. So you still have time if you really need to talk to him."

"Yeah. Thanks. I have to go now." Brooke ran out of the house as quickly as she could and jumped to her car. She drove to the airport. She speeded and almost crashed on the way but she had to make it to the airport in time. When she arrived, she had twenty minutes to find him. She ran through the airport and finally found Lucas standing in the sequence.

"Lucas!" She hollered when she ran closer to him. Lucas looked around but didn't see anyone who could scream his name.

"Lucas Scott!" Brooke hollered even more loudly. Now he saw Brooke standing in the end of the row. He ran to her.

"Brooke, what are you doing here?" He asked in confusion.

"We need to talk." She answered breathlessly.

"But my plane leaves in twenty minutes."

"I need to know if those things you wrote to that letter are all true."

"Every single word."

"Oh my god." Brooke whispered. "Don't go."

"What?"

"Please don't leave."

"But…"

"I need you." She said and looked into Lucas' eyes. She was sobbing more than before and tears fell hardly down to her cheeks. "You can't go because I need you here, I've never needed someone so much in my life. But if you don't want me, just tell me. It will break my heart but I have to live with it."

"I want you more than anything else in this world. I've needed you for so long. I think about you every second, I just can't get you out of my head."

"I love you, Lucas." She said with her raspy voice and looked deeper into Lucas' eyes.

"I love you too, Pretty girl." He answered and put his lips to Brooke's lips and kissed her. They stood there and kissed, everyone around watched them and clapped. Lucas raised Brooke up, twirled her around and kissed her again.

_... now that you know the truth  
Just wanna be with you, can't hold back  
This is real, cause what we share  
It's undeniable, don't wanna hide no more  
Here I am, and I'm coming for you ..._

Preview:

Brooke and Lucas start building up their relationship.

It's the last weekend of the summer. Brooke throws a summer end party at her place.

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Lyrics at the end of the chapter are from JoJo's song Coming For You.


	18. Moved by you

**Moved by you**

Lucas woke up at the morning because his phone rang. He reached to the phone and answered it.

"_Hey Boyfriend!"_ Brooke's voice said on the phone. _"Are you awake?"_

"I am now."

"_Great. I want to see you. You can't imagine how much I miss you already."_

"It has been only ten hours."

"_Aw. Don't you miss me?"_

"Ah, of course I do. I'll pick you up in half hour."

"_Okay. Bye, love you."_

"Love you too." Lucas hang up the phone and put it away. He dressed up and soon he was ready to go. He picked up Brooke and they went to the café to grab coffee.

"Do you even realize it's the last Friday of this summer? I can't believe that summer is over already." Brooke said when they left the café.

"Yeah. And we can't have a sweet summer romance." Lucas answered. When they were on the sidewalk, he grabbed Brooke's hand and kissed it.

"But now we can have autumn, winter, spring and summer romance. Don't you think it's a whole lot better?"

"Umm. Maybe."

"Lucas! Maybe is not the answer. But okay, this time I'll forgive you."

"Thank you god!" Lucas said and looked to the sky. He looked back down, at Brooke and they both started laughing.

"But you'll get punished, you bad bad boy." Brooke said. She grabbed Lucas from his shirt and pulled him closer to kiss him.

"That was a really good punishment. I think I should do that more often."

"That's not the real punishment. The real one comes now. I need you to come to shopping with me."

"What?" Lucas asked and started laughing.

"I need things for tonight's party and also new clothes. So I thought that maybe we can go together. You know, just to spend some time together and have fun."

"Do you realize that I hate shopping?"

"I know that. I just want to be with you but I have to do the shopping. This is the only way." Brooke looked at Lucas with a puppy look on her face and Lucas was obviously melting.

"Okay. I'll come with you." Lucas finally answered.

"I knew you would." Brooke said. She put her arms around Lucas' neck to pull him closer and kissed him again. Then Lucas wrapped his arm around Brooke and they walked on.

"How's Nathan? Seems like Haley won't forgive him so easily." Brooke asked then. She was really worried about Haley and Nathan.

"Haley's giving him some hard time. He's trying to change so badly but you know Haley."

"Haley is a good girl. She's really special and I understand why she's so mad at Nathan. But I guess Nathan really likes Haley because it's the first time when he really tries to change for a girl."

"This summer I learned a lot about Nathan. He's not that person everyone thinks him to be. I judged him wrong. He lives with such big pressure because Dan always pushes him. For him basketball is the most important thing."

"Has Dan ever helped your mom?"

"Nah. He never even offered help. And to be honest, I'm glad he didn't. I would have turned out to be like Nathan."

"I'm glad too. I love you just the way you are." Brooke said and kissed Lucas to cheek. They had reached Brooke's favorite shop by that time. "Now let's do the shopping!" Brooke said enthusiastically and pulled Lucas into the shop with her. Lucas looked around and all those fancy clothes around him made his head go round.

"C'mon! I need some new clothes for tonight." Brooke hollered from the other corner of the shop and Lucas followed her there.

At the night everyone gathered to Brooke's place to end the summer their own way. Brooke, wearing red top and tight black pants with red wedges, welcomed the guests and when everyone was there, she finally had time to pick a drink and find her boyfriend. She looked around. There were Peyton in her wheelchair talking to Haley, cheerleaders dancing with guys and finally Jake, Nathan and Lucas chatting in segregated place. She walked to them.

"Can I steal my boyfriend?" She asked them.

"Sure." Jake answered and smiled. Nathan nodded. Lucas rose up and walked to Brooke. He wrapped her arm around Brooke and they walked away.

"You did a great job." Lucas said to Brooke.

"I wasn't sure about this party. I was about to cancel it. I mean seems like no one's in mood for a party." Brooke answered and had a sad trammel in her voice.

"Look around. Everyone's having good time." Lucas said and pulled her closer.

"Yeah. Everyone but you, me, Peyton, Haley, Jake or Nathan." Brooke complained.

"I'm happy and I'm having good time because I'm with you."

"Me too but I find it hard to have fun when my friends have hard times. I know, Peyton and Jake look happy but I don't know what's going on with them. Haley and Nathan aren't going to make up. I mean look at Nathan, he's completely drunk! And poor Haley. She will see the real Nathan tonight and that's not a good thing. I feel so bad."

"Is it okay if I talk to Haley?"

"Yeah. I'll find Nathan and beat that crap out of him." Brooke responded to Lucas. They kissed on both walked their own way. Lucas found Haley with Peyton and Jake, Brooke dragged Nathan away from drinks.

Brooke took Nathan with her and they went outside. They sat down to a bench next to the pool. Nathan was pretty much drunk so Brooke struggled to get his attention.

"Nathan!" She yelled at him. "Why you always have to be such an ass and ruin everything."

"An ass? Is that a new way how to say 'I want you so bad'?" Nathan joked and laughed at himself. But Brooke didn't, she was really serious.

"I'm not here because I want you or whatever. I need to talk to you. I know it's not the best time but I have to do it before you do something stupid so Haley never wants you."

"Haley. Where's Haley?"

"She's inside, Nate. She's waiting for you to make things right but you are drinking and you probably will end up hooking up with some strange girl. Haley doesn't even want to see you if you are like that."

"I know you want me." Nathan still didn't get what Brooke wanted to say.

"Nathan! Firstly, I don't want you anymore. Secondly, that's not the subject now. We are talking about you and Haley here."

"What? Haley? I don't like her."

"Don't say things you don't mean. I know you like her and you want her. It's Haley James who we are talking about. Remember?"

"Yeah."

"So?" Brooke started getting fed up with Nathan.

"What? I know Haley James. She's … She's …"

"She's the girl you want! Not just for hooking up but for being with her and taking care of her. When are you going to realize that you have to try hard to be a guy she wants for herself? She likes you and she knows there's someone different hiding inside you. You got to see it, Nathan. You got to see that person she needs in you because that person exists. I'm pretty much sure about that." Brooke spoke and made Nathan shut up. "Nathan?" She wasn't sure if Nathan was listening to her. He stilled.

"I have to find Haley." He finally answered seriously and walked away. Like he got sober with a moment. Brooke smiled while watching him walking away. She was satisfied.

After Nathan was gone, Brooke went back inside. She was looking for Peyton and found her sitting alone in her wheelchair, so she walked to her.

"Hey buddy. Why are you here alone?" She asked and sat down to the couch next to the wheelchair.

"Do I have any options? I'm stuck in here." Peyton answered with jaded voice.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I left you alone here."

"It's okay. Jake will be back in a minute." Peyton smiled again.

"He makes you smile! P.Sawyer! Is there anything you want to tell me about?"

"No, Brooke! We're just really good friends."

"Oh, c'mon! When we'll you admit it? He's a total fox!"

"Yeah, he is but…"

"But what? That smile on your face says everything."

"Okay, okay. I like him, a lot actually but I'm not ready for a new relationship. I feel like there's not enough room for Jake in my heart because Lucas still owns it." She stopped but when she saw Brooke's face changing, she continued. "Don't get me wrong. I don't want Lucas back. There's no point because I see how much he loves you and I would never hurt my best friend. I just need time and I'm sure that Jake will help me to get over Lucas."

"I'm glad he gives you hope. And I'll be here for you whenever you need me." Brooke responded and smiled. Peyton stretched her arms out and pulled Brooke to her embrace. Then Brooke saw Jake coming closer.

"I'll leave you two alone now." She said, waved to Peyton, at the same time smiling cleverly and walked away. She went outside and sat down to the bench next to the pool where she had talked to Nathan before. She sat there and watched how the water glittered. She was sad and she felt how her body shook because of the cold. It was weird because before she didn't feel that. Lucas watched her from further and saw how she shed her head. It seemed obvious to him that Brooke is sad and she walked to her.

"Hey, pretty girl!" Lucas said when he sat down next to Brooke.

"Hey." Brooke answered quietly and raised her head.

"You are shaking! Take my jacket." Lucas took off his jacket and gave it to Brooke.

"Thanks."

"Now tell me why is the queen of the party sitting outside alone and not inside having fun with others?" Lucas asked and took Brooke's hands to hold them.

"I just needed to think." Brooke answered but didn't look at Lucas.

"About what?"

"About some stuff."

"Like what?"

"She still loves you." Brooke finally said and looked deep into Lucas' eyes. Her eyes got wet.

"What?" Lucas was confused.

"Peyton. She still loves you, Lucas." She sobbed.

"But I love you."

"I know. But I also know that you and Peyton have a huge emotional connection. Since the day I moved here, I always saw you staring at each other. And the way you talked to each other. There's obvious attraction between you two. When I asked Peyton if she has feelings for you, she always denied it. She wasn't happy with Nathan. They were fighting and breaking up all the time. And when she hooked up with Jake, she told me about it, she was so angry with herself. But she never told me about hooking up with you. She didn't want to tell me about her feelings for you. She didn't tell her best friend. And then I met you and I had no idea that you and Peyton had something. I was so stupid, I should have seen it. If I look back, I can see that spark and feeling between you. I just wanted to be your friend. But suddenly I felt something more, something I've never felt before. I've never loved anyone. Now you should know why I was so hurt when I found out about you and Peyton. And now I'm scared. I love you so much and I want to have that same connection with you. I don't want to lose you."

"I love you Brooke, more than anyone else. Yeah, I care about Peyton but you don't have to be scared. I want to be with you, not Peyton." Lucas pulled Brooke to his embrace. He whipped away her tears and kissed her.

_... how can I  
stand here with you_

_and not be moved by you?  
Would you tell me  
how could it be  
any better than this ..._

Preview:

Summer is over. Brooke, Lucas, Haley, Nathan, Peyton and Jake start their senior year.

There's a new girl in the class. Lucas and Brooke both recognize her and Brooke isn't very happy.

Brooke has to find a new girl to cheer squad to replace Peyton.

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Lyrics at the end of the chapter are from Lifehouse's song Everything.


	19. So long sweet summer

**So long sweet summer**

It was the first day of the last year in school for the seniors. Brooke, Haley and Lucas walked together to school. In the front of the school Nathan joined them. Haley and Nathan still didn't talk to each other but Brooke saw some forgiveness between them and she was happy for them. She knew they would make it work somehow.

"I can't believe that it's actually the last year of high school, cheerleading, and post-game parties. I'm going to miss it!" Brooke whined when they walked in front of school.

"I'm just going to miss my friends." Haley added.

"I'm going to miss basketball." Lucas said after a little thinking.

"Me too." Nathan added.

"Too bad that Peyton isn't with us today." Brooke said and her face got sad. Lucas pulled her closer.

"Don't worry. She'll be with us soon." He tried to console her.

"Oh. Excuse me; I'm going to see my girls now. I haven't seen them for so long." Brooke totally changed when she saw Rachel, Bevin and Kenzie entering the school and ran after them. When she turned around the corner to go in, she ran into someone. She recognized the perfume. It was Felix. She didn't want to raise her head and tried to walk on.

"Brooke!" Felix hollered. Brooke stopped and turned around slowly. "Maybe we should talk." He said then. Brooke laughed and stopped it instantly.

"It has been at least three months and now you want to talk? Go to hell!" Brooke shouted and everyone around looked at them.

"I'm sorry. I really am. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"Tell me I heard wrong and you just didn't say that. How pathetic!" Brooke didn't notice Lucas approaching from behind.

"It was just a mistake. But I guess you have moved on pretty fast or that isn't your newest conquest?" Felix flouted when he saw Lucas.

"What?" Brooke got confused. She turned around and saw Lucas standing behind her. He stepped a side to Brooke and put his arm around her. "You don't know anything about me or my life. I'm wondering who the fool you are going to seduce next is!"

"Shh. Calm down, Brooke." Lucas whispered to her and she shut up. "I'm not her conquest. I'm her boyfriend and I love her." He continued and almost yelled at Felix.

"Yeah, I was that too." Felix answered with a wicked sneer on his face.

"But she didn't leave you. That was you who broke her heart. And seems like you're happy with it."

"You don't know anything about it."

"Oh yeah, I do." Lucas got really angry and Brooke noticed that he wanted to swoop to him.

"This is so stupid. Let's go." Brooke interposed and dragged Lucas with her. They walked into the school and then Brooke saw cheerleaders again.

"I got to see my girls now." She stopped and said to Lucas.

"Yeah, sure. Go." He answered. Brooke gave him a peck and walked away, Lucas went to the class.

"Have you seen the new girl already?" Rachel asked when Brooke reached them.

"No. Who is she?" Brooke responded.

"Nicole Carter. A blonde leggy bitch. I know her because we were like friends when we were children." Rachel answered.

"Then what happened?" Brooke wanted to know.

"She moved away. But before that we had a fight. A really big fight."

"Oh, wait. I think I remember her. They call her Nic, right?" Bevin interposed. "I remember she was stealing other's boyfriends. Yeah. Now I know."

"Guess we have to keep our eyes on her just in case she's really hungry." Brooke said. The bell rang and they all went to the classroom. On the classroom door Brooke stopped. She was shocked to see Lucas chatting with a blonde girl who flirted with him at the River court. Seemed like they were in a deep conversation and they both had fun. That made Brooke sad and of course, jealous. Most of the seats were grabbed so she sat to the front row and saved a seat for Peyton next to her. She sat far from Lucas and during the class she looked at him and Nic like thousand times. Nic always looked at Lucas and smiled to him, he smiled back.

After the classes Lucas went to see Brooke because it seemed like Brooke ignored him.

"Hi stranger. Still remember me?" He started conversation with Brooke.

"Yeah. I just thought that maybe you want to hang out with your new buddy." Brooke responded sarcastically.

"Are you talking about Nic? I just know her and we haven't seen for a long time."

"Umm, you have talked like … one time? And I wouldn't call that talking."

"How do you know that?"

"It doesn't matter Luke. She's a lying whore. If you don't believe me then it's okay. I guess you have to find out by yourself." Brooke said and walked away. She walked pass Haley and didn't even look at her. Haley walked to Lucas.

"What's wrong between you now?" She asked.

"I don't know. I guess someone is a bit jealous."

"Mm. It's about that new girl in our class, right?"

"Yeah. She's my friend. Like I'm not allowed to have any female friends."

"You got to understand Brooke. She's just afraid of losing you."

"But she doesn't have to be."

"Tell that to her. By the way, have you even talked to Peyton?"

"I was actually thinking about going to her place before the practice."

Lucas went to Peyton's place. He walked in, straight to Peyton's room. She was obviously alone at home. She was lying on her bed. She was drawing something but Lucas couldn't see what it was.

"Hey." He said when he stepped to Peyton's room. She flinched a bit.

"Hey you too." She answered.

"What are you drawing?" Lucas asked when Peyton tried to hide her drawing.

"Um. Nothing. I'm just sketching. It not something big." Peyton answered and put it away. "Why are you here anyway?"

"I just wanted to see how you are doing. And I haven't really talked to you."

"I'm doing great."

"You know I didn't want to hurt you." Lucas said but Peyton didn't answer. "I never explained it to you clearly."

"I know everything. I know you love Brooke and because of that you somehow stopped loving you."

"I never stopped loving you. I still do but it just doesn't feel right."

"I love you, Luke. There will always be something between us." Peyton responded. She couldn't look into Lucas' eyes. "I don't know why I'm even telling you this."

"I'm in love with Brooke and I hope you'll understand it."

"Of course I do. I wish all the best to my best friend. And right now I'm feeling like I will get over you because I have someone who is ready to give away everything for me in my life. I think I will fall in love again." She finally looked at Lucas

"I hope you'll be happy. But I will always be there for you."

"Thank you." Peyton said. Lucas grabbed her hand and smiled to her.

Brooke went to the gym. It was cheerleaders' first practice this year. They actually didn't practice but they had things to talk about. When all the girls were in the locker room, Brooke stood up and walked to front of them.

"Hi girls! Firstly I want to wish you a good school year. You know we are not going to practice today; we just need to go through some things. Our main priority is the annual cheerleading tournament. We are going to prepare for it soon because I would like to win it. I know you girls can do it. But I think we have a little problem too. Since Peyton is paralyzed, we need a new girl to the squad." She hardly finished her sentence when Nic walked in and interrupted her. All the girls were looking at her.

"Oh. Um. Hi! Are you the cheer squad?" she asked.

"Yeah. What do you want here?" Brooke responded arrogantly. She was the last person she wanted to see at that moment.

"I heard you have a free place in the squad. I was cheerleader in my last school so I could be it here too. What do you say?"

"I – I don't know really." Brooke was confused. It was a really good chance but she didn't want Nic to her squad. "I'll let you know."

After the basketball practice Nathan and Lucas were the last ones in the locker room. Lucas sat on the bench and looked to an empty place.

"A rough day?" Nathan asked and sat down next to Lucas.

"Nah. Just some weird conversations with my girlfriend and ex-girlfriend. That's all." Lucas answered to him.

"Everything okay between you and Brooke?"

"Just a little weird conversation."

"It's definitely because of that new girl in our class. I saw you talking and she like smiled you all the time during the class."

"Yeah. She's my friend."

"I hope so because you don't know how much it hurts when the person you love doesn't want to be with you because you did everything wrong." Nathan said and put his hand to Lucas' shoulder.

"Things aren't going well with you and Haley, huh?"

"She's cold as ice. Autumn wind probably froze her."

_... so long sweet summer  
I stumbled upon you _

_and gratefully basked in your rays  
so long sweet slumber  
I fell into you, _

_now you're gracefully falling away ..._

Preview:

Will Brooke take Nic to the squad?

Is Nic causing more trouble for Brooke and Lucas?

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Lyrics at the end of the chapter are from Dashboard Confessional's song So Long Sweet Summer.


	20. Grand theft autumn

**Grand theft autumn**

"Gee! I wish that accident never happened to Peyton. I need her to my squad!" Brooke whined when she walked to class with Haley.

"Brooke. I think you should calm down. That squad isn't your life, so isn't cheerleading. And maybe, after all, Nic is a good person. You never know that before you get to know her." Haley tried to calm her friend down but seemed like it didn't help much.

"Can you hear yourself? If you could, you'd think you are really stupid. She has history of stealing other's boyfriends, she's all over Lucas! Think, what if it would be you and Nathan instead of Lucas and I?"

"We're not dating and he's not my boyfriend, so she can take him if she's interested."

"Whatever you say, but you'd be as mad as I am. I can't just let her walk into my world. You know, that would be funny, if she wants to be friends with me. I'm opened for relationships with backstabbers. She would fit perfectly."

"I still think you are being too harsh on her. You don't know her at all! Maybe she has changed. I mean, look at you. You were a man eater too, right? But you have changed for better! Instead I wouldn't be your friend."

"Thanks Haley. That made me feel so much better." Brooke said sarcastically. "I changed thanks to Lucas. Maybe she wants Lucas' help too."

"You are completely overreacting."

"Shouldn't you be on my side, GIRLFRIEND?"

"Shhhh!" Haley said and pointed at Nic coming towards them. She had more make up on than last day and her platinum blonde hair seemed to be even blonder. Brooke sighed deeply and smirked when Nic came closer.

"Hi Brooke. Hi …" Nic stopped there. "Sorry, I don't know your name." she turned to Haley and smiled apologetically.

"No surprise. It's Haley." She answered friendly and managed a big welcoming smile to her face. Nic nodded and looked at Brooke, waiting for her to say something.

"So, Brooke. Have you already considered my opinion?" She asked when she realized that Brooke won't say a thing.

"Ummm. Okay. I really need a girl to my squad so I have to accept it. Be at the gym right after school."

"Sure. See you then. Bye Haley."

"Bye." Haley sent Nic away with a little wave and turned to Brooke again. "See? She seems to be really nice person."

"Yeah. She just knows how to please people and how to confuse them. That doesn't mean she's not a lying whore anymore." Brooke ended the conversation, giving Haley a killing gaze and they walked quietly to the class.

Later Brooke wandered around the school to find Lucas. They haven't met since yesterday and she was really missing her boyfriend. She tried to call him but his cell was switched off. She searched on and finally found Lucas sitting on the bench, but not alone. Nic sat next to him, one side snuggling to Lucas. Brooke wasn't very happy about it and walked towards them. Lucas didn't even notice her approaching.

"Can I take my boyfriend now?" Brooke flipped and smirked when Nic finally looked at her. Lucas was now looking at her too.

"Yeah. Like I'm holding him here." Nic answered and grinned contentedly when she noticed Brooke's irritation.

"C'mon Lucas!" Brooke said under her breath. Lucas stood up and walked away after Brooke. When they were far enough, Brooke stopped.

"Tell me that wasn't what it looked like!" Brooke almost yelled at Lucas and turned around to face him.

"What? We were just talking."

"That bitch was flirting with you and seemed like you had nothing against it!" Brooke shouted again. Her voice broke and eyes got wet. "It's like since you got me, I'm not good for you anymore and you need something new to conquer. I don't want to be thrown aside like that."

"Brooke." Lucas said gently. He stepped closer to Brooke and rest his hand on Brooke's cheek. "She wasn't flirting with me and I wasn't flirting with her. I would never do it to us. You are all I need and I'm not throwing you aside. Nic is my friend and I guess I'm still allowed to have friends, right?"

"Yes, you are. But why you have to be friends with her? Do you know her at all? Have you heard what she did before she moved away from Tree Hill?" Brooke answered and pulled away Lucas' hand. She walked away from him.

"I don't have to know who she was. It's important to know who she is now." Lucas said and followed her.

"Believe it if you want to but I have to tell you that when you'll find out what she's like, you'll be disappointed." Brooke wanted to end the conversation and walked away but Lucas grabbed her hand. She stopped and waited what he had to say.

"Why you always have to be so negative about everyone?" He asked. After a while looking at Brooke he realized he had asked the wrong question.

"Everyone? Always? I'm talking about Nic here! Nicole Carter who once hurt my good friend really badly. I can't be positive about her. I can't. And I'm sorry if that's a problem to you." Brooke finally gave away everything that was hidden inside her. "I'm going now. Don't try to stop me again or follow me. Don't talk to me today." She walked away and Lucas only stayed there like a stone. He couldn't do anything.

Brooke decided to skip all other classes and went to Peyton's place as she always did. She walked into Peyton's house, went upstairs and when she entered Peyton's room, she noticed that she was sleeping. Then she quietly stepped to the room but the floor gritted and Peyton opened her eyes.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to scare you or wake you up." Brooke apologized and sat down to the bedside.

"It's okay. I wasn't actually sleeping. But what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at school?" Peyton responded.

"I should but I don't want to be there. School is horrible without you." Brooke said with a sad trammel in her voice. "I missed you. That's why I came here."

"Okay. Who are you and where is the real Brooke? What happened to her?"

"This is still me. I just miss you."

"Brooke. Ever since you are dating Lucas you've changed a lot. For better until now. I can tell that there's something wrong, your hesitation is very obvious. Talk to me." Peyton knew how to talk to Brooke. They hadn't been friends for a very long time but a year was enough to get to know a person who is like your true soul mate. So she looked at Brooke and waited for an answer. "I don't have much time; I have to go to the rehabilitation soon." She added.

"You are going to rehab? That's so wonderful, Peyt!" Brooke cheered and tried to change the subject.

"I know but we were talking about you right now." Peyton didn't give up.

"There's a new girl in our class. You may know her. Her name is Nicole Carter."

"Nic is back in Tree Hill? Wonder what she wants now!" Peyton was really surprised when she recognized that name. Her slighting voice tone made Brooke even angrier.

"I knew there was something wrong with her! Tell me what you know about her!" Brooke stood up from the bed and walked nervously around the room.

"She's like the worst man-eater in Tree Hill history. I remember she used to be only one big problem to everyone. Guys naturally loved her."

"I knew! That skank is after Lucas. I'm not going to let her take him from me. I'm not going to give him up so easily, I swear to god! This whore will learn who Brooke Davis really is." Brooke cussed angrily and barged out of Peyton's room.

Brooke was the first girl who was in the gym for cheer practice. She changed her clothes and sat alone in the locker room until other girls came. They stretched and were almost ready to start but there was someone missing – Nic. Brooke decided to start without her and in the middle of the practice Nic walked to the gym, without any regret on her face. Girls stopped and Brooke walked to her.

"You are late." She said seriously. Inside she was boiling of anger.

"I know. I didn't know you guys started so early."

"I told you right after school in the gym, didn't I?"

"It is right after school, I just couldn't make it any faster."

"How other girls could and you couldn't? Listen to me carefully now. I don't care how much power you got her before or how slutty you are how much guys love you. You are just a usual person, even lower for me and I'm not going to treat you differently." Brooke yelled so loudly that even guys from the basketball team stopped their practice and now looked at them. But Whitey made them play again.

"Are you scared, Brooke Davis? Someone better, more beautiful, sexier, smarter, taller and thinner than you comes and takes the spotlight away from you. I don't know why you are so popular anyway. Maybe because you are the captain of the cheer squad but I even don't know how you got this far. In freshmen year was Peyton Sawyer on your place. What happened to her? Did you killed her and buried to your basement?" Nic spoke with an evil grin on her face filled with satisfaction.

"Dare you to tell me I killed my best friend, you dumb fake-blonde whore!"

"Oh. I see you have done a good job here. Captain of the cheerleaders, sorry, ex-captain is your best friend; star player of the basketball team is your boyfriend."

"Damn right, he's my boyfriend. So you should keep away from him."

"What? Are you scared of losing him? Yea, I would be too after seeing us together, having good time. Oh, I got him."

Nic's last lines made Brooke so mad that she couldn't control herself. She jumped to Nic and grabbed her head. Entire basketball team was once again watching at the cheerleaders again. Finally other girls took Brooke away and she walked away, full of anger, followed by others. Only Nic waited until all others left and walked away then.

"Okay. The Cheerleaders Catfight Show is over now. Get your asses back to the court!" Whitey shout when the girls were gone. Guys started playing again. Lucas was going through with the ball and when Nathan tried to stop him, he pushed him so hardly that he fell down and hurt his wrist.

"What's wrong with you, man?" Nathan asked while holding his aching wrist.

"What's wrong with me? Do you really want to know what's wrong with me?" Lucas answered angrily; it was obvious that he wasn't controlling himself. "My girlfriend thinks I'm a cheater and a liar, you are making my best friend sorrow and all my life is just a big mess after all!"

"Calm down, bro." Nathan tried to calm him down but it didn't help.

"Don't call me your brother if you don't mean it." Lucas responded and walked out of the gym. On the door he popped into Haley but just passed her coldly. Nathan walked after him and noticed Haley. He stopped in front of her.

"What happened to Lucas?" Haley asked nervously.

"I don't know. He just clashed on the court. What are you doing here anyway?"

"I wanted to talk to you. But I just realized I have nothing else to say but that I forgive you and I'm sorry for making you feel bad." Haley apologized to Nathan and he kissed her. "Let's find Lucas now." Haley smiled; grabbed Nathan's hand and they went to search for Lucas.

_... the falling leaves drift by the window_

_The autumn leaves of red and gold  
I see your lips, the summer kisses  
The sunburned hand I used to hold ..._

Preview:

Will Brooke and Lucas find a way how to talk things through and make up?

What surprise Karen and Keith have for Lucas?

How Jake and Peyton surprise Brooke?

What has Brooke planned for her friends?

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Lyrics at the end of the episode are from Eva Cassidy's song Autumn Leaves.


	21. Everything in it's right place

**Everything**** in its right place**

Late at the night Lucas was walking down the street. He needed to get out after clashing at the practice. He looked at all houses he passed – they all seemed to be same and boring but then he saw a big beautiful house with a beautiful red door. He eyed the house and realized how special that red door was. The girl behind that red door was even more special. He knew he had to go there and apologize to that girl and in a few minutes he was standing behind that door, knocking on it. Soon the door opened and Brooke in a dressing-gown appeared.

"Luke. What are you doing here so late?" She asked. She was obviously surprised by Lucas' late visit.

"I needed to see you." Lucas answered and stilled. An awkward moment of silence took place between them. "Brooke, I'm sorry. I never wanted to hurt you. And I'm here to say how much I love you." After saying those words he looked into Brooke's eyes and they stilled again. Brooke slowly managed a smile to her face.

"You are so sweet. C'mon in boyfriend." She took Lucas' hand and pulled him with. They stepped into the living room and Lucas was surprised to see candles all over and fire in the fireplace. He looked around and gave Brooke an asking gaze.

"What?" Brooke asked with laugh after she noticed Lucas' weird face.

"Are you waiting for someone?"

"No. I just, you know, wanted to spend some time with myself and just relax but I don't mind having you here with me." Brooke kissed Lucas slightly and when Lucas wanted to kiss her back, she drew away. She smiled slyly and pulled him with her to the floor. They sat down in front of the fireplace. Lucas wrapped his arms around Brooke and she rest her head to Lucas' chest.

"So you aren't mad?" Lucas asked after sitting there for a while. Brooke turned herself so she could look into Lucas' eyes.

"Not mad but a bit hurt. Or more like disappointed. I saw you with Nic once, I think you first met then and she was obviously flirting with you. I was sure she's after you and when I saw you two together, it like proved I was right. And somehow I came to thinking that you may want her too."

"I love you, you and only you, Pretty girl." Lucas said and pulled Brooke closer. He softly touched her lips with his and wanted to hold onto this moment forever.

Lucas spent the night at Brooke's place. In the morning they went to Karen's café to crab something to eat. Lucas opened the door for Brooke and walked in after her. Brooke went straight to the table where Nathan and Haley sat. But Lucas went to his mom who was cleaning the counter; Keith sat opposite her and drank his morning coffee.

"Morning." Lucas said when he reached the counter. Keith smiled to him cleverly.

"And where have you been?" His mom started picking on him but she wasn't furious. "I didn't notice you asking me for permission."

"Not now ma." Lucas answered wearily and walked away from them to join Brooke, Nathan and Haley.

"Wait a sec. We have something to say." Karen said then and she rushed to their table with Keith. They held each other close and both were smiling and shining.

"We got engaged." Keith said with a bright smile on his face and Karen raised her hand to show the ring. Lucas was stunned, he just ran out of words.

"That's so great! Congratulations!" Haley cheered and jumped up from her chair. Brooke did the same and they both ran to Karen to see the ring closely.

"Oh my god. It's so beautiful." Brooke whispered while watching the ring and then hugged Karen and Keith. "Congratulations."

Then Haley hugged them both. Nathan hugged Karen and shook hands with Keith. "Well done, uncle." He said to him. After that Lucas walked to Karen.

"You haven't said a word." Karen said to him. Lucas looked at her for a while and managed a wide smile to his face. Karen grabbed her shoulders and pulled him to her embrace.

"I'm happy for you ma." He said to her mom when they were hugging. He stepped to Keith and with no words he just hugged him.

"We should celebrate! Do you have champagne here?" Haley said then and Karen looked at her weirdly.

"You are all underage." She said with pretty seriously. They all gave her a look. "Okay, okay. Let's celebrate then. I'll get the champagne." She finally melt and went to the kitchen while other sat down around the table. Then the door opened and Jake helped Peyton in.

"Peyton! You got to hear the news!" Brooke yelled right when she saw Jake and Peyton entering the café. She stood up and ran to them. "Karen and Keith got engaged!"

"Really?" Peyton responded. "That's really … wow." She smiled. She moved to the table with Jake and Karen came back from the kitchen with glasses and a bottle of champagne.

"Hi Jake, Peyton." She said and Jake walked to her and congratulated. Then Karen put glasses and bottle to table and went to Peyton and hugged her too. She opened the bottle and poured champagne to the glasses. She had brought juice for Peyton. They all raised their glasses.

"To Karen and Keith!" Haley said. All repeated "To Karen and Keith!" and they clinked their glasses.

Later when Haley and Karen headed back to work, Keith went to the body shop and Lucas was chatting with Jake, Brooke and Peyton found some time alone to have a talk.

"You are so beautiful today." Brooke said when she was staring at Peyton and her wide bright smile.

"Yeah, it happened so. I promise it won't happen again." Peyton answered jokily.

"No, I mean, you look somehow more beautiful and pleased than usually."

"There's a reason." She answered and her face lit up.

"Tell me already!" Brooke was full of excitement.

"Jake is moving in with me."

"So you are officially dating? I knew it! I was rooting for you." Brooke winked to Peyton and they both laughed. Brooke wrapped her arms around Peyton and hugged her strongly. Then she suddenly let her out of her embrace and looked for a clock.

"Oh my god. What's the time?" She asked nervously and took out her cell phone. "I got to go now. Sorry. I'll call you later. I have a surprise to you all."

She walked to Jake and Lucas to say bye.

"Luke, I'm going now." She said and Lucas stood up.

"Where are you running?" He asked and wrapped his arms around her.

"I got a surprise to you all and I have to prepare it. I'm already running late."

"And what's the surprise?" Lucas tried to get the secret out from Brooke.

"If I'd tell you it wouldn't be a surprise anymore." She kissed Lucas and Lucas let her out of his embrace. "Bye now." She waved and walked out from the café.

Later everyone received a message from Brooke that said:

"_Hey buddies! I have a little nice surprise for you all. Come to my place at 8 tonight. I'll be waiting for you. Brooke__, xoxoxo_

_P.S. Put on some nice clothes! ;)_

So Peyton put on a nice black dress and had her hair curled. Haley wore a short golden dress. Nathan, Lucas and Jake all wore suits. When they reached Brooke's place, she was welcoming them, wearing a really beautiful red dress. She smiled brightly on the door and let them all in.

"So what's the surprise?" Peyton asked then impatiently and Brooke directed them to the dining room. There was a large table in the middle of the room coated with all kind of foods. And there was a man standing next to that table who was greeting them with smile like Brooke's.

"You did this all by yourself?" Haley asked looking stunned.

"Almost. I had a little help from my father. Dad. These are Haley, Nathan, Lucas, Jake and Peyton. Guys, this is my dad. I'm sure that only Peyton have seen him before." Brooke introduced her friends and father.

"Yeah, I haven't been around much." Her dad said and looked at Brooke who gave him a forgiving smile. "Anyway, nice to meet you all. I'm Michael Davis. Call me Mike. I'm having dinner with you if that's okay." He smiled and they all nodded and smiled back to him.

"Okay! Let's sit down then." Brooke said enthusiastically and they all gathered around the table.

After a while they had eaten and they all seemed to have really good time. They had laughed all the time, they were just happy.

"Okay." Mike said and stood up "I'm going to bed now. I'm really tired. I had a really great time with you. Good night."

"Good night." They all said and he left the room. Then they all turned their looks to Brooke.

"Your dad is so cool! I actually knew that but he's way cooler than I thought." Peyton said than and they all laughed.

"Yeah, he's cool. Lately at least. But I say your dad is cooler. He's such a joke cracker."

"I have to agree with that." Jake joined the conversation. "I'm always laughing madly when he's home."

"Okay, but your dad is hotter than my dad." Peyton still argued. Haley, Nathan and Lucas found their conversation funny and they just laughed.

"No way. Your dad is a total fox. Why else is he my hot dad fantasy? Oh, my dad could be yours!" Brooke cheered and winked to Peyton. Lucas had a really confused face.

"Hot dad fantasy?" He asked curiously.

"Don't worry. It's just an inside joke." Brooke answered and took his hand.

"You know what guys. It's really getting late and we have to go to school tomorrow." Haley suddenly broke the laughter.

"Yeah. I'd like to sit here longer but it's really late." Peyton agreed. They all stood up and walked to the door.

"Thank you for that good night, Brooke." Nathan said and they all hugged each other. "Luke, are you coming with us?" he added.

"No, I'm staying for some extra ice cream." He answered, teasing Brooke who only laughed.

"You wish. Ice cream is mine!" she punched his forearm. Peyton, Nathan, Jake and Haley only laughed and then set off. So Brooke and Lucas were standing alone on the doorsteps. Lucas wrapped his arms around Brooke and pulled her closer. He looked deep into her eyes.

"You did a very good thing to us. I had a lot of fun. And I really feel good right now."

"Me too. I can say I had almost forgotten how it feels to be happy. You made me remember it."

"I'm glad I can make you happy. You make me happy too. With you I'm the luckiest guy on the planet. But there is another thing that makes me really happy right now. I haven't told anybody about it yet."

"Tell me! I want to know!"

"Keith wants to adopt me." Lucas said with a deep sigh and managed a grin to his face.

"Oh, Lucas. That's great, isn't it?"

"Yeah it is."

"I'm so happy for you." Brooke said. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him closer to hug him. And that hug led to a really passionate kiss. So they stood there safely in each other's arms without caring about the cold night because they were warm there, in each other's embrace.

_... your kiss is fine _

_there's warm desire in each embrace_

_And the wine is fine _

_and that makes us want to stay_

_We're in the right place at the right time _

_and it's easy to go wrong ..._

Preview:

Has Nic given up on Lucas or will she continue seducing him?

Will Dan accept the adoption plans?

Why is Brooke so lonely again? Will her friends help her to get over it?

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Lyrics at the end of the chapter are from Claude King's song Right Place (at the Right Time).


	22. My perfect day

**My perfect day**

Lucas was sitting outside the school at the lunch break when Nic once again walked to him. She had that same wicked smile on her face and she was wearing shorter skirt than ever before. No surprise that all the guys around just stared at her and she kindly smiled to all of them. Guys seemed to be really jealous when she sat down next to Lucas.

"Hey!" Lucas said to her when she had sat down.

"Nice day isn't it?" she answered and smiled widely. "You know it is."

"Yeah. It is a very wonderful day actually." He sighed deeply and grinned.

"Oh, haven't seen you so happy before. Some special day or what?"

"Nah, just everything's really fine. Actually I haven't felt so happy before either. How are you doing?"

"I don't know. As usually I guess. Nothing new anyway."

"I haven't seen you around at the weekends. Are you away from Tree Hill then?"

"Oh," It was definitely an offending question and she wanted to skip it but that would have been even more suspicious. "I'm hanging around with my friends. You know, from one party to another. That's how it goes."

"Okay, that's why I haven't seen you."

"Yeah, we're different. Very different but it isn't a bad thing is it?"

"No. I actually like it a lot." He grinned again and Nic answered with the same.

"I like that too." Her voice tone changed to siren and foxy. She had definitely other plans with Lucas than just being friends with him.

When Brooke walked outside to find her boyfriend she was disappointed again when she saw Nic leaning on Lucas as they were sitting beside a table together. She didn't leave even if that was all she wanted at that moment. She just stood there and saw how Nic moved closer and closer to Lucas all the time and her heart ached again. It felt like someone ripped out pieces of it. She pulled herself together and walked towards them from behind.

"Hi boyfriend." She said when she was standing next to Lucas and kissed him. She gave a peek to Nic who rolled her eyes and sat down to the other side of the table. "Eww, something stinks here. Wait a sec. Of course. There's a skunk sitting in front of me. No wonder then."

"Brooke." Lucas wanted to stop her from bashing Nic but she obviously couldn't.

"I know my name is Brooke. You don't have to say it to me all the time." Brooke shut Lucas off of the conversation.

"What a witty girl. Seemed so fragile and smart. I couldn't even think about you bashing other girls and doing all those stupid things to get rid of someone." Nic finally

"Yeah. Game on you innocent and smart little angel. Everybody here knows who you are and somehow you will be revealed anyway. Don't play games with me. You don't know who I am so you don't know what I can do."

"Okay. Stop it now!" Lucas finally stepped in as he couldn't watch two great girls bashing each other.

"Yeah. I'm leaving. See you later Luke." Nic said as she walked away from the table. Lucas only gestured his hand.

"What a skank." Brooke cursed under her breath.

"I still don't get you." Lucas shook his head. He seemed to be upset or even a bit angry.

"What?"

"What has she done to you?"

"We have talked about it before."

"She's different now, Brooke. Give her a chance."

"Unbelievable. Why is that so hard to be on my side?"

"There are no sides. You think there are but that's wrong. She could be your friend too."

"No. I don't like flirting girlfriends."

"She's not flirting with me."

"I don't want to start that again. But I just don't want to believe that it's okay to you that we are fighting again after making up two days ago. I just, I just don't know what to think anymore." She stood up to leave Lucas sitting alone.

"Brooke, I –" He started but Brooke didn't let him finish.

"It's okay. I have to go now. Love you." She said calmly and kissed him to cheek before walking away.

After school when Lucas reached home he was surprised to see Dan's car standing in front of his house. When Dan saw him, he stepped out from the car and they walked towards each other.

"What are you doing here?" Lucas asked coldly and arrogantly. Dan was the last person he wanted to see.

"I heard some news about you getting adopted by Keith." Dan answered as he still approached Lucas.

"And so?"

"You are still my son, you know."

"Am I? Doesn't feel like it." Lucas hissed through his teeth.

"I can stop Keith from doing that."

"What do you want from me? Huh? Do you want me to play family with you after all these years I didn't even know you? I still don't know you. You haven't been there for me and my mom."

"I'm just saying that I'm not giving you away that easily."

"Why? Are you scared that I'm going to take Keith as my dad? You don't have to be. He has always been the only dad I have had. I don't need you."

"As you say. We will see that." Dan grinned evilly and walked back to his car.

"You can't threaten me!" Lucas yelled behind.

"Oh yes I can." He turned around and said. "Have a nice day, son." After giving another grin he sat to his car and drove away, leaving Lucas staring after him. He was confused. What did Dan have against him? What will he do to stop Keith adopting him? All those crazy thoughts ran through his head. He stood there for a while, lost in thoughts. But when those thoughts discontinued he walked inside and found Keith making coffee in the kitchen. He grinned to Lucas when he went in. Lucas sat down beside the table and Keith joined him.

"I saw you talking with Dan." Keith started the conversation and noticed that Lucas was worried.

"Does he have something against you that proves you as a bad father?"

"No I don't think so. Why are you asking?"

"He told me that he can stop you. I have to figure out what he's planning."

"Don't worry about it, Luke. It's Dan. He's always threatening people even if he doesn't have any proof against them. And even if those papers say that Dan is your father, I can be your real father if you only want to." Keith said and grinned again. That made Lucas smile too. He believed in Keith.

"I don't understand." Haley said to Brooke when they were walking around downtown. Brooke was crushed again but she wasn't mad or angry. She was calm outside; just her mind was racing crazily.

"Which part?" Brooke responded with a question without looking at Haley.

"Every part! You just made up after fighting because of Nic, you were so happy yesterday and now this."

"I don't get it either. He always protects that skank! I mean I love him so much. For the first time I really love someone. Yea, he came to my house and apologized but it didn't change anything. He's always putting Nic first and I'm always on the second place. I can't have a relationship like that. I just don't know what to do."

"But maybe she is a great person. You don't know that."

"Oh Haley. Stop it already! I know Lucas has been your best friend since forever but he can do wrong too! And this time he's doing the worst."

"But we all make mistakes. You aren't an exception."

"That's so not the point right now! I'm trying to keep him from making a mistake but he doesn't understand. I'm just. I don't have mood for anything. I have nothing to do. I don't have a place to go because I'm all alone at the home again."

"I know a place we can go to." Haley said with happier tone and grabbed Brooke's hand to dragger her with.

Peyton was sitting on her bed alone. She was drawing a picture of the dinner they had at Brooke's place. They portrayed the gang as happy and pleasant bunch of friends.

"Hey P.Sawyer!" Brooke hollered when she jumped into Peyton's room, making her flinch. Haley followed Brooke and waved her hand for greeting.

"You actually scared me, B.Davis and that's not funny at all!" Peyton said her words, laughing at the same time.

"Why are you laughing then?" Brooke dropped the question and kinked her eyebrow as she usually does.

"I guess you are funny then." Peyton answered and now they all laughed together. "I'm glad that you came over." She added.

"Jake told me yesterday that he will be away for a while. Your dad isn't coming home either?" Haley said as she took Peyton's hand.

"No. Even Jake will be back before he will be."

"Aww, that's sad. But you've got us, girly." Brooke said and moved closer to Peyton. "Maybe we can even spend the night here!"

"So you came to crash my bedroom? Fine by me." Girls laughed all together again. Haley and Brooke lied down next to Peyton and rest their heads on the big pillows.

"You don't know how awful school is without you. Since you've been absent, things have gotten worse every day." Brooke started whining after a while stilling.

"You are just making it look so bad." Haley argued and that upset Brooke.

"Haley! You are supposed to be my friend but you are defending her again! Could you –"

"Hey! Stop it!" Peyton cut Brooke out and they all stilled. "Why do you have to fight all the time? We need to stop it. Yeah, history tells us that Nic is a lying skank. I agree because I know her. At least I did. But nobody knows what kind of person she is right now. You both have a right to have different opinions about her but don't kill each other because of it!" After Peyton ended her little speech, Brooke and Haley both stared at Peyton and each other speechlessly. "Now give each other a hug and promise you won't be fighting about Nic any more!"

Haley and Brooke took Peyton's word as a command and hugged each other. They held each other for a pretty long time. Peyton didn't want to be left out and pulled both girls to her embrace.

"I have to admit its pretty pointless thing to fight about. I'm sorry, tutor girl." Brooke mumbled still in arms of her best friends and they all hugged even stronger. That's the way they all felt safe.

_... troubles blooming  
Innocence now fades  
But still she's dry through  
All the rain_

_She had a perfect day ..._

Preview:

Brooke will have a surprising visit!

How will the situation between Brooke, Lucas and Nic be solved?

Brooke gets out of hands at the post-game party. Is there anyone to help her?

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Lyrics at the end of the chapter are from Collective Soul's song Perfect Day.


	23. Upside down

**Upside down**

Brooke and Haley got up at Peyton's place and had to run to home so they could get their things and then meet up to go to school together. But when Brooke went home she found a really disgusting view facing her in the living room – her mother was making out with some young boy on the couch. She stepped to the doorway and faked a cough but the couple didn't seem to notice her.

"Mom?" She finally said loudly enough to make both lovers flinch. They both looked at Brooke who had a disgusted look on her face.

"Brooke, honey." Her mom stood up from the coach and walked to her. "It's so good to see you." She said and hugged Brooke. She hugged her back lightly and smirked after mumbling "Good to see you too".

"Oh, Marcky, come here!" She wiped to the young guy on the couch. He stood up and walked to them. "This is my fiancé, Marcus."

"Hi, Brooke. I've heard lot about you." He kindly stretched out his right hand and shook hands with Brooke, who didn't say a word but only smiled. She wished she could say same thing about him.

"Okay. This is all really nice and stuff but I have to go to school now." Brooke said while rushing to her room because she was already running late.

"You aren't going to school today." A voice answered her from the living room and she went back there to control if she had heard right.

"What?"

"You heard right. I'm here only for today and I want to spend that day with you." After getting a gaze from Marcus, she added "and Marcus".

"It's a game day today, mom. If I don't go to school I can't cheer at the game!"

"Oh, Brooke. You have cheered at the games since … forever! You can miss that one time. It's not like cheerleading is your life."

"Whatever you say." Brooke mumbled and maundered back to her room. She grabbed her cell and dialed Haley's number.

"Hey, sorry if you are waiting for me. I'm not coming to school today. My mom is here and … it's a long story. I'll talk to you at night. See you." She threw her cell to the bed and walked back to the living room again. She found her mom sitting there alone and gave her an asking look.

"Marcky went out to see the town. He really likes it here." She explained as she understood what Brooke wanted to know. "Now come on, sit down next to me." Brooke obeyed and did as she was told.

"Marcky? What kind of nickname is that? And how old is he anyway?"

"Is that important?"

"Yeah! I mean look at him. He could be my brother!"

"He could but he isn't. And age is just a number."

"Whatever, really."

"Brooke. If you are as old as I am, you will know that love doesn't ask your age."

"That's sick. I think I don't want to know that. And by the way, when I'm as old as you are right now, I'm going to be married with kids and extremely happy. I'm not going to destroy my life and my kids' life like you and dad did."

"Oh, we didn't want to hurt you. I thought -"

"I don't care what you thought. But you should start thinking about others." She rushed out of the living room. She was upset and hurt but she didn't cry. She just went to her room, threw away the family portrait that stood on the cupboard and lied down to her bed. She grabbed her phone to see if there are any signs of Lucas missing her but she was disappointed again.

She came out of her room at the night. She was all natty and dressed up. When she passed her mom and Marcus who sat in the living room, she was stopped by her mom.

"Where are you going?" She asked when she walked to Brooke in the hall.

"Out." She answered shortly and looked herself from the mirror.

"Where?"

"That's none of your business. And don't wait up."

"Brooke!" She tried to stop her but she was already out of the door.

Brooke reached the gym by the time when the entire team was supposed to head to the post-game party at Scott's beach house. She stood outside and waited for Lucas but not for too long. Soon she saw Nic coming out with another cheerleader, Ashley, and Brooke was close enough to hear what they said.

"Are you coming with me?" Ashley asked Nic when they stopped.

"No, I'm waiting for Lucas." Nic answered and winked her eye. Ashley smiled to her and walked away.

That was enough to Brooke. That's all she could take and no more. She sat to her car and drove to the beach house. Party had already started and everyone knew it wasn't a party without Brooke Davis, so she stepped to the house and grabbed a drink. She soon found Bevin sitting alone.

"Hey ya, girl. It's a party and Bevin Mirskey is sitting alone! What's wrong?" Brooke said when she sat down next to Bevin.

"Rachel promised that we will be having fun together tonight. Like it's our party or something. Now she's gone with some guy from the rival team."

"Oh, Bev. That's not a reason to pass a great party. I'm here and I'm all yours so come on!" Brooke grabbed Bevin's hands and pulled her up.

"But what about Luke?"

"Who's Luke?" She answered blandly and grinned. Bevin responded with a grin. They walked through the living room. Brooke saw Nic and Lucas sitting together from the corner of the eye but swallowed her pain and went on with Bevin. In the kitchen a gang of teenagers were competing in drinking.

"Can we join in?" Brooke asked the gang and everyone accepted them. So they took drinks and started to drink as much as possible. But she could drink only few drinks when Lucas grabbed her arm and pulled her away from there.

"What are you think you're doing? Let go of me." Brooke yelled and struggled but couldn't get out of Lucas' grasp. Lucas let go of her when they were outside at the back of the house where they could see the sea and hear the waves crashing.

"What's wrong with you? Why are you drinking so madly?" He started huffing at Brooke.

"What? Who the hell do you think you are to teach me?" Brooke yelled back to him. Music was too loud to talk normally anyway.

"I think I'm your boyfriend and I'm not teaching you. I'm keeping you away from troubles because I care about you and I don't want anything bad happen to you."

"Yeah." Brooke laughed hysterically. "What about your other girlfriend. I think Nic was her name. Am I right? Yeah, go and find her before he hooks up with another guy."

"Brooke. You are crossing the line." Lucas got really mad and this conversation was turning into a fight.

"You've already done it."

"How? Is it forbidden for me to have friends? Do I have to leave everything else besides you behind?"

"Do you ever even listen to me? I'm trying to keep you away from the worst but I'm still the bad one." They were yelling so loudly that mot of the guests had gathered around and were staring at them. Brooke soon noticed Nic standing behind Lucas. "Why don't you take your girlfriend and get the hell out of here!"

"You are incredibly mean and selfish. You're not that Brooke Davis I used to love." Lucas' last words cut her like knife. She did her best to stop herself from crying.

"Whatever." She said and walked back inside. All the people walked away from Lucas too besides Nic. But Brooke didn't care. She went back to the place she had drunk before and started drinking with Bevin again.

Later Bevin had lost Brooke and was hysterically looking for her. She saw Haley and Nathan sitting on the couch and ran to them.

"Hey, guys. Have you seen Brooke?" She asked when Haley and Nathan looked at her.

"No. Is something wrong with her?" Haley responded. She knew that Brooke wasn't okay and now she was officially worried about her.

"She's like really, really drunk and I don't know where she is."

"We have to find her." Haley answered automatically and stood up from the couch. Nathan did the same and they both walked upstairs to look into the bedrooms, leaving Bevin behind. In one of those they found Brooke making out with some random guy.

"Brooke! What are you doing?" Haley hollered when they stepped into the room. Guy jerked away from Brooke but she pulled him closer again.

"You don't want to do this." Nathan tried to convince Brooke to stop. Now Brooke pushed the guy away and stood up.

"If he can do it, so can I!" She slurred, hardly standing by herself. She was about to fall down but Nathan caught her and pulled up again. Haley beckoned Nathan and he helped Brooke out of the room. They went to the beach and sat there, Brooke in between Nathan and Haley.

"Why are we here? Are we going to swim? I like swimming." Brooke started slurring again when Nathan and Haley tried to talk to her.

"Brooke, you shouldn't do this to yourself." Haley tried to talk to her again but that seemed to be impossible.

"It's really cold here. Can we go inside?" She was truly shaking now. Nathan took off his jacket.

"Here. Take it." He put his jacket to Brooke's shoulders and she smiled to him thankfully.

"Now tell me what's wrong? Why are you doing it to yourself?" Haley tried to make Brooke speak again.

"I'm just having fun, you know. I think it's okay to have a really great party after a really awful day." She was still slurring so it was really hard to understand what she was saying. "I mean, my mom came to visit me after god knows how many months and she has a boyfriend. Marcky. Or Marcus. Whatever, that's not the point anyway. That guy is like _so_ young. He could be my brother. They make me sick, like really sick. I can't believe she has totally forgotten about my dad. And she refused me to go to school! She didn't let me go to school at the game day. Then I sat all day in my room and even my boyfriend didn't want to know anything about me. I mean, is that Nic really so much better than me? I don't get it, you know. I don't have blonde hair or nice, long legs or smile like her but that doesn't make me worse than her. I just don't get it why Luke loves her more than me. Or more than he used to love me." Tears came to her eyes and soon they rolled down her cheeks. Haley saw how hurt her friend was and that hurt her too. Teary eyed, she wrapped her arm around Brooke and she cried on her shoulder at the same time Nathan was rubbing her back. He wanted to be there for Brooke too.

"We are taking you home now before you'll pass out." Haley said and Nathan helped to pull Brooke up again. It was hard because she was almost sleeping.

After taking Brooke home, Haley and Nathan went back to the party. Just a moment after walking into the house, Lucas walked to them.

"Have you seen Brooke? I've been looking for her –" He started but couldn't end.

"Yeah. We took her home." Nathan interrupted him.

"And she's fine now. But no thanks to you." Haley added. She sounded so mean that Lucas actually felt bad.

"Hales. She's attacking me all the time. I'm already tired of this."

"Luke! She was drunk and made out with some random guy. If we wouldn't have interrupted her, she had sex with him. She talked to us that her mom was here and didn't let her go to school but you didn't even care where she is. And do you even know what you said to her before? That you used to love her! She cried on my shoulder until she passed out. I don't know what to think anymore. I really thought that Nic girl is great and stuff but now I'm not sure. And I don't recognize you anymore. You're not Lucas Scott that used to be my best friend." Haley railed at Lucas, living him and Nathan shocked of her sincerity.

At the morning Brooke woke up with a terrible head ache. When she plodded to the kitchen she thought it was really early in the morning because she was tired as hell but her mom was already preparing for the lunch.

"What time is it?" Brooke asked her mom while searching for aspirin.

"Late enough. Hang over, huh?"

"It's not –"

"Don't lie to me Brooke Davis. I know exactly."

"How do you …?" Brooke was now really confused because her memory from last night was very foggy.

"I was still up last night when your friends carried you home."

"Somebody took me home? Peyton?"

"No. Either of them were Peyton. One of them was that Dan Scott's son, Nathan I think but I didn't recognize the girl."

"Haley." Brooke mumbled singly.

"What?"

"Nothing. I'm trying to get some more sleep now." She was almost out from the kitchen when her mom stopped her.

"Wait. This conversation isn't over yet. Do you really think you get away with drinking so easily?"

"Yeah because I'm used to this. It's not like I have parents around all the time."

"So now it's my fault?"

"No it's not your fault but I don't think you have a right to lecture about it."

"Brooke I want to be with you all the time and be the parent you want me to be."

"Then do it for once in your life! You've never been there for me and I don't need you to be now. I can handle it on my own." Brooke cried on her highest voice and ran out the house without letting her mom to respond.

_Baby, you don't understand our love lies lost  
but you're still holding my hand.  
Oh and then you walk away,  
just tonight, I want you to stay.  
You're turning me on,  
you turn me around,  
you turn my whole world upside down._

Preview:

Peyton is finally out from the wheelchair and she's back at school.

How will Brooke bring Nic down?

How Lucas takes it?

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Lyrics at the end of the chapter are from 6 Cycle Minds' song Upside Down


	24. Dirty little secrets

**Dirty little secrets**

"I hate my life right now. Even shopping can't make me feel better." Brooke whined when she was looking for some new clothes in her favorite store with Rachel and Bevin. She took a golden top and scanned it with her eyes. "It's gorgeous. But I don't have a mood for buying anything. I think it's the first time in my life when I felt like that."

"What are you going do to?" Bevin asked while searching through the jeans next to Brooke.

"I'm not sure but I think I have to bring her down. But with my boyfriend attracting skanks it isn't the easiest thing to do. He's really starting to piss me off." Brooke whined, throwing back all the things she had chosen out. She walked out of the store and sat down to the bench in the middle of the mall's hall. Bevin and Rachel joined her there.

"They are both begging for a war. If they want a war, then it is a war."

"Totally. I mean, the way he treated you at the party, like you are some piece of crap." Bevin responded, trying to say something although she actually didn't know how to help Brooke.

"And all this because of Nic. She should get it already that being a bitch is so two years ago." Rachel added.

"You know what. Instead of bitching about everything we should do something. I would really like to kill her right now but oh, I got too much to live for."

"So do you have any ideas?" Bevin asked and turned to Brooke and then Rachel who was looking around.

"Come on guys. I have an idea." Rachel said then and stood up. Bevin and Brooke followed her. They went to another store that sold some kind of trendy jewellerys. Behind the counter there was a tall and handsome brunette who was filing her fingernails at the moment when girls stepped to the store. "This is Nic's ex BFF. I'm sure she has some information that we could use. Hey, Evelyn." Rachel greeted the girl when they stepped closer to the counter.

"Hi, Rachel. How are you?" The girl answered.

"I'm fine. Umm, I actually need a favor. Or we need a favor."

"What kind of favor?"

"You know, we are having a little war with Nic and we really need to bring her down and since you hate her now I think you can help us."

"What do you need?"

"Something really striking that would show who she really is."

"You know what. I think I got something for you. Meet me in the front of the mall tonight at 11 pm. I'll show you something striking. And dress up for a club." Evelyn winked and girls high fived each other.

At 11 pm girls were standing in front of the mall as were promised and soon Evelyn arrived too. They were all dressed up although they didn't know where they were going. Evelyn asked them to follow her and they went to the bar in a really strange neighborhood where none of them had been before. It was all dirty and full of young people hanging around. They entered the bar and without any doubt it was clear what kind of place that was – a strip club. All three of them watched around their mouth opened.

"Okay. Let's go in." Evelyn said and moved next to the stage. They all at down around the table and she pointed her finger on a girl who was doing lap dance to some really old guy. There was no doubt that it was Nic there.

"What the hell? I knew she's a bitch but a stripper? But it didn't surprise me at all." Rachel said when she stared at Nic getting closer and closer to the old man.

"This is exactly what I need!" Brooke cheered and took out her camera to take a few pictures of Nic. "Those pictures are gold! Thank you Evelyn. I don't know how to make it back to you."

"You don't have to. Bringing down Nic is the enjoyable thing. But my work is done here. I'll leave you girls here. Bye."

Girls waved to Evelyn and turned back to watch Nic.

"That's one hell of a job." Bevin said and still watched her dismayed.

At the same time Haley went to see Lucas. She opened his room door and looked in. Lucas was sitting on his bed with the laptop and he was probably writing but closed the laptop when Haley opened the door and looked at her.

"Hey." Haley said quietly while standing on the door and stepped in after that. She at down to the other side of the bed.

"Hey. What are you doing here?" Lucas responded softly and put away the laptop.

"I just wanted to see my best friend. How are you?"

"I don't know. After that party everything is pretty much messed up."

"About that party. I'm sorry that I attacked you like that but I really worried about Brooke."

"Its okay, Hales. I should be the one apologizing to everyone. I messed up big time."

"Have you talked to Brooke?"

"I tried to call her but she won't answer my calls. I guess it's my own fault."

"What's with that Nic anyway? I don't get her at all."

"I know she was all bad before but I think she has changed. She seems to be really nice."

"But have you thought about what if Brooke's right and her intentions aren't so good at all?" Haley put Lucas to a very hard situation with that question. He looked down and then back to Haley again, trying to find the right words to say.

"I hope she's not. I'd like to get things back to track with Brooke." He finally answered and looked really sad. That made Haley suspicious.

"Luke. Are you sure that you don't have any kind of feelings for Nic?" She asked and seemed like her question surprised Lucas.

"Of course not. Brooke is the one for me and I'm going to make sure that she knows it too." His respond satisfied Haley and the anxious expression disappeared from her face.

"I hope you'll do it fast enough. I mean, she's about to give up."

"I know. I wanted to talk to her tonight but I can't reach her. Do you have any idea where she could be?"

"She told me something about going out with Rachel and Bevin but I don't know where."

Lucas only nodded sadly and turned his head away. Haley kept looking at her best friend and saw how he really struggled.

Later when Haley left, Lucas went to the living room where Keith and Karen were having a tea and chatting. He stood on the door and just looked at them for a moment and he saw a spectacle of his imagination of the perfect life. He stepped on and sat down to an armchair opposite to the sofa where Keith and his mom sat together.

"So what is going on here?" He asked.

"We are just discussing things, you know." Keith answered to him and smiled. They seemed to be like one happy family.

"What kind of things?"

"The adoption and things involving that." Karen answered and Lucas' face totally changed.

"Yeah. About that. Are you sure it'll go through?"

"Don't worry about it, Luke. Dan can't do anything about it." Mom tried to calm Lucas down but it didn't seem to help a lot probably because of all the things going on with him. He walked out from the room again and back to his room.

It was almost midnight when Brooke drove to Peyton's place. Seeing the light in Peyton's room, she came out of her car and ran into the house. She stormed to her room and found Peyton still drawing the picture that she did before.

"Wow, isn't that a bit late for a work out?" Peyton asked when Brooke sat down, panting like she just ran away from death.

"You're not going to believe what I just found out!" Brooke whirred when she sat down next to Peyton. "Nic is a stripper!"

"WHAT?" Peyton almost screamed.

"You heard right. That skinny-ass whore is twirling around poles at some weird strip club in downtown. But it didn't surprise me at all."

"I'm shocked actually. I really wanted to believe that she is different now and Lucas won't make a huge mistake. By the way, have you talked to him about that?"

"No. I will deliver it scandalously. Are you coming to school tomorrow?"

"Yeah, my first day at school after the accident. On crutches but at least I don't have to be alone at home anymore and you don't have to miss me."

"Finally! But trust me; your first day will be wicked scandalous." Brooke winked to Peyton and had that clever smile on her face. Something was definitely going on in her head.

In the morning Brooke was the first student at the school. She never went to school earlier, often she was even late. But she was so excited and couldn't sleep anyway. She knew it was evil to do a thing like that but otherwise her friends didn't believe her so she had no other options. Before the classes started, she rushed to Peyton's place to pick her up. When they stepped to the school hall, Peyton's jaw dropped. There were different posters of Nic stripping everywhere. Students were staring the posters and whispered when Nic came around. But it wasn't a shocker for them, they already knew her enough. When Nic saw Brooke, she looked like she was ready to eat her alive but she only grinned pleasantly.

"Did you sleep last night at all?" Peyton asked when they stood next to one of the posters.

"Yes. It wasn't very hard thing to do and besides it was pure joy. If Lucas and Haley still think she's the angel from above then now they see that she's not."

"Is Lucas at school already?"

"I don't know I haven't seen them yet. We don't have any lessons together now. But I'll find him later, he owes me an apology. Then maybe we can get all freaky later." Brooke did her famous wink and they both giggled. Then Nic walked to them and grabbed Brooke from shoulder.

"Do you really think that helps you anyhow? If so, you must be incredibly stupid!" She said and didn't seem as mad as she was before.

"Oh yeah. It will help me. You'll see." Brooke snapped back to her. They were about to fight but the bell rang and Peyton dragged Brooke to the class.

After having a few classes apart from Peyton, she stood alone by her locker and put away her books. She was about to meet with Peyton outside when Lucas walked to her from the other side of the hall.

"Brooke!" He yelled from far and she stopped.

"Hey boyfriend." She responded sensually and tried to kiss him but he didn't let her.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" He huffed on her and she didn't get why.

"I'm trying to open your eyes, Luke!"

"By embarrassing Nic?" His voice rose and everyone in the hall heard what they were talking about so Brooke had to drag him outside.

"Don't you think that lying skank deserves it?"

"She surely has her reasons."

"Wait. You already knew about it?"

"No."

"So how can you still protect her? Nic is a stripper. A slut! She sleeps around all the time and I'm sure you know it." Brooke was now the one yelling but she was really disappointed in Lucas.

"You don't know why she's doing that job. Maybe there are no other options for her."

"I know you have a great heart Luke but try to understand that everyone isn't good. Nic isn't the person you thought she was. Do you get it?"

"Being a stripper doesn't make her a bad person."

"But it makes her cheap!"

"Don't you think that publically humiliating someone is cheap too?"

"You say that I'm cheap?" She couldn't believe what she heard. At that moment she wanted to cry so badly but she held herself back.

"Look, she didn't tell me about her job and I don't care! It's not like she is my best friend or something. And you should calm down and think a bit. What you did was really low." He ended the conversation and walked away. Now Brooke let the tears pour. Well, not pour but her eyes got wet and she just went home.

_You've got this dirty little secret  
You're trying hard to keep it  
Out of sight, out of mind  
But you can't hide_

Preview:

Nic isn't done with Lucas yet.

Will Brooke and Lucas be back on track soon?

Brooke gets a new friend.

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Lyrics at the end of the chapter are from Pillar's song Dirty Little Secret


End file.
